Riley Potter and the Prophesy of the Protector
by MotherCrumpet
Summary: The story of Harry Poter's very different twin daughters and their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy.
1. Chapters 1, 2 & 3

Chapter 1: The wand

My dad insisted on driving to Diagon Alley. I would have preferred to take the underground but he said people stared at him too much on the underground. It makes him nervous or something. So, here we are Dad, Lily, and I driving through London trying to find a place to park.

"Dad, honestly I know you never got a proper license because you were at Hogwarts and all but you could have at least taken some driver's ed. when you graduated. I mean this is ridiculous," I complained.

"Riley, shut up while I'm driving," He growled back.

I must point out at this time that we were in bumper to bumper traffic and no one was really driving. You couldn't move.

"There's one!" my sister called from the back seat, "Right there!"

My dad quickly maneuvered into the parking space. I jumped out as fast as possible. I hated when he drove. At least mom could drive.

"Why couldn't we have used floo powder?" I asked, "It's so much better than your driving!"

We walked up to the Leaky Cauldron and went inside. Instantly the whole room was silent. Everyone was staring at my dad.

NOT AGAIN! I thought WHY CAN'T EVERY ONE STOP STARING!

The silence was broken by a creaky old voice, "Hello Harry. Good to see you again. I was expecting to see you in here soon. You must be buying your daughters things," It was Old Tom the innkeeper.

"It's good to see you too Tom. Yes, I'm off to buy my girl's school supplies. It's their first year you know." My father responded.

As we walked through the building there were whispers of "Is that Harry Potter?" and "His daughter looks like his mother did."

With that comment they were referring to me. People who had seen Grandmother Lily, in pictures or before she died, comment on how I look exactly like her. I was the "spitting image" or something like that.

As we proceeded to Gringrotts to get our money, the crowd parted to let us through. There were whispers all around us. It spooked me out but dad was used to it, after all he was Harry Potter.

After getting our money from Gringrotts we split into two groups. Lily and dad went off together. I proceeded in the other direction. Wherever I went I was followed by stares and whispers. While purchasing my owl in Eeylops Owl Eporium, I saw a boy about my age staring at me with his mouth wide open.

Annoyed at his rudeness I told him, "Take a picture it'll last longer!" and walked out. I had to get my wand now. I went to Ollivander's and met my dad and Lily. We went inside to buy our wands.

"Well, well, well. Mr. Potter I do presume. Are you keeping that wand in good shape?" A creaky voice floated from the depths of the shop. "What can I do for you today? Oh… two daughters mean two wands. Am I correct?" Without waiting for an answer he started pulling wands off shelves while a tape measure started measuring us.

Shooting a look at my dad, I noticed he looked a little nervous. Mr. Ollivander just kept right on talking. He was oblivious to all that was going on around him. "Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple. Am I correct? Of course I am. I remember every wand I've ever sold….." And on he went, "Right, you first." he said pointing to Lily. "Only can do one at a time you know."

Lily picked up the first wand and waved it. It didn't do anything. She waved the next wand around and there was a loud bang and sparks flew out the wand's end.

"Oh, well done," Mr. Ollivander praised her, "and now for you."

Lily got bored pretty fast as I waved more and more wands around. I'm sorry to say so did my dad. After sitting for a while in a spindly chair he got bored and took my sister to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink.

"Ah, yes. Another tricky customer, just like your father," Mr. Ollivander was saying. "I do love a challenge!"

But it turned out that I was THE trickiest customer he'd had yet because as I waved more and more wands there were fewer and fewer left to try. Finally there were no wands left besides one on display in the corner.

"Strange," he muttered to himself, "This has certainly never happened before." Then, looking over at the wand on display, he said, "No, no. Not possible. Not possible at all. It couldn't be THAT one!" But he still walked over and picked it up, "Now THAT would be curious."

"What would be curious?" I asked confusedly, "What's strange about it?" but he just ignored my questions.

"Here try it," he said quietly. As I reached for it, it did a strange thing. The wand…..

"It jumped into your hand!" Mr. Ollivander whispered hoarsely sinking into the chair, "No, but The Prophesy did say… but so soon? Has the time already come? The Great Evil arisen already? Is The Protector born and ready to be trained?"

Then to me he said, "Oh wonderful child, what is your name again? Do you know whose wand you hold?"

"Um…" I stuttered surprised, "I'm Riley, Riley Potter. Whose wand is it? And if someone already owns it why did you let me try it?"

"Oh dear, dear Riley that wand you hold once belonged to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It was placed in my care until…. Well, until it could be given to its rightful owner. It is my gift to you," He said bowing. "Thirteen inches, yew. I'm sorry to say its last owner gave your father his scar. But, I will tell you the same thing I told your father. The phoenix feather that wand contains was given by Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. Fawkes gave one other feather. That feather is contained in your father's wand. I can only say this to you Miss Potter…" He leaned in closer to whisper, "I think it is very safe to assume that we can expect great things from you, very great indeed."

Chapter 2: Polaroid Boy

As I walked towards The Leaky Cauldron I was very preoccupied. Well if someone had just behaved towards you the way Mr. Ollivander had towards me, you would be preoccupied too! So, anyway, not paying attention to where I was going I ran straight into someone. The next thing I knew I was on the ground with my stuff all over the place.

"Oops! I'm sorry I…" but as I turned to apologize to whomever I had run down I saw that it was the guy from Eeylops Owl Eporium. Oops! I swallowed and tried to start again, maybe if I got out of there fast enough….

"Hey, you're the girl who told me to take a picture it would last longer!" said the boy.

"Um, yes that WAS me," I said, "Sorry… I was in a bad mood. And I'm sorry for running into you too. I was a little, well, out of it."

Spying my new wand laying about three feet away I reached for it. But, unfortunately it didn't wait for me to pick it up. It jumped three feet into my outstretched hand.

"That was wicked awesome! I'm Spencer Wood by the way. What's your name?" The boy asked me, "It's my first year at Hogwarts this year. Dad was awfully proud."

"Riley Potter," I said shaking his outstretched hand, "It's my first year too. Not a big surprise though. My name's been down for ages. Well, my sister's has at least. I think they thought I wasn't good enough or something."

"It's nice to meet you. I'll see you on the train, if you don't mind that is. I have to get my wand now. That's all that's left," Spencer said excitedly.

"Oh, um… you may want to wait on that one, "I said, "Mr. Ollivander didn't look so great when I left. Sorry about that too. I think it's my fault. But I'll look for you on the train."

And so Spencer and I parted ways. Not that it would be that long before I saw him again. The train only left in a few days.

"Oh good," my dad said as I walked in, "We can go now. Did you get your wand?"

"Yes. It was the very last one in the shop, but I got it." I replied. Then I looked down and saw a picture sticking out the end of my Polaroid camera. I picked it up and saw it was a picture Spencer. I showed it to my dad.

"Does that look like one of your old pals?" I asked.

"Where did you get this? It looks exactly like him!" He asked me breathless.

"I just 'ran into' his son," I informed him, "That's who that is. The picture must have taken when I dropped my camera."

As I walked to the car I had a new thing to think about. This one came in the form of the cute son of a famous Quidditch player, Oliver Wood.

Chapter 3: Kodak Moment Reactions

We got home and walked into our house. My mother was nowhere to be seen. She was probably out back in the garden. She loved that garden, maybe even more than me but not more than my sister, no never Lily. LILY never messed up or broke anything. LILY was a genius. SHE could cast spells and hadn't even walked onto Hogwarts grounds yet. LILY would never have gone to Muggle School. LILY was never considered a squib by her parents. Unfortunately I was. Until I got my letter my parents feared I was a squib. They sent me to Muggle School so I would "at least have a chance in the world." I was not a genius… or so they thought. Secretly I was ten times better than Lily. And I could fly! Lily should never go near a broomstick again. In fact they should pass a law requiring her to stay _at least _twenty feet away from one.

"Girls I'm outside if you want to show me your things!" my mother called, "I would really like to hear about your day Lily. Was it good? Did you get everything?"

As usual my presence was overshadowed by that of my sister. So I went upstairs and poured my stuff on the bed. I looked at the broomstick leaned up against the wall behind the door. Sighing I picked it up and started to leave my room. Seeing my dad coming I ran back inside and laid it back in place. He wanted me to study so I could at least perform simple spells.

"Riley," he started, "I know how much you like to fly but you shouldn't go out for the house Quidditch team, at least not this year. Sure, you fly better than I ever did and we sure could stand to win the cup again. You need to concentrate on your studies and…."

His face went ghostly white, "Riley Spencer Potter what is that?" he pointed to my wand.

"It's my wand…" I started. But he was already out the door screaming for my mother. "And you obviously don't care about my explanation." I muttered.

"Harry, dear, what _is_ it?" mum asked. Then seeing me on my bed she added, "What did she do this time?"

I started to say something when my dad yanked me by the arm and dragged me off in the direction of his room. After slamming the door and putting an impenetrable charm on it to prevent my sister from listening ("Not that Lily ever would!" mum insisted) he started interrogating me. (He never left any room for me to answer his questions either.)

"Is that what I think it is? Where did you get it? Why do you have it? WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING MY QUESTIONS?"

Having been yelled at for doing nothing, I wasn't in the best mood. However, I learned that when my dad starts yelling like this it's best not to lose my temper. (I, most unfortunately, seem to have inherited his temper to. I have been working very hard to keep this temper in check though.)

"It just so happens to be MY wand," I spoke very slowly so he would understand easier. "It used to be someone else's wand. I'm sorry to say he didn't use it very well now did he? I, however, plan to use it very well and for _GOOD_ only." I stressed this point so he wouldn't miss it, even in his blinding rage.

"I know, I know. You could have told me sooner though," he said sinking down onto a chair. "I didn't mean to blow up like that but you haven't exhibited perfect behavior too often."

"It _was_ a class 4 on the blow-up scale." I pointed out, "And this time I didn't 'climb' the school roof."

"Wait, you climbed the school roof? Oh wait, yes, I remember that." He replied.

As I got up to leave I called back, "As I've told you before I did _not_ 'CLIMB' the school roof. That was a random act of magic you failed to recognize. Did you _honestly_ think I was a squib?"

The look on their face was truly a Kodak Moment Reaction. In fact I get a lot of those from them. I even bring my camera to the yelling matches for the purpose of getting a picture of their reactions. But this one, this one was a truly fine example of their reactions. I mean mum's mouth was wide open and my dad's, well, he looked like he had just been made the Minister of Magic. His eyes _were_ sort of bulging out and his tongue _was_ lolling out of his mouth.


	2. Chapters 4, 5, & 6

Chapter 4: A spin around London

After my parents and sister were in bed and long since asleep, I got out of bed and crossed to my window seat. My wand lay beside me while I gazed far out over the fields. In the far distance I could see the light that was always coming from that direction, the light meaning London. I wasn't an ounce tired and longed to be out flying.

WELL WHY CAN'T I, I thought, I DO HAVE THE INVISIBILITY CLOAK. IT IS RIGHT OVER THERE ON MY CHEST OF DRAWERS.

So I got dressed, grabbed my broom, the invisibility cloak, and my wand, and then headed outside. When I got out there I mounted my broom and pulled on the cloak.

I smiled as I rose into the air. But where would I go? The night was still young. I could go anywhere. I had always loved to see London at night. It was so magical with all that light. If it wasn't such a long flight I would go to Hogwarts instead. But in London I could visit George Weasley's twin daughters, Celeste and Lauran.

Yes, surely they would love to sneak out and go flying. They took after George in every way. It was funny to watch his pride in them struggling with his parental duties when they were in trouble. He seemed to end up getting yelled at by Alicia, his wife, more than they did on these occasions.

As I flew straight towards their house my thoughts strayed to the day after tomorrow when I would be riding the Hogwarts Express to school. I hoped to find Spencer once I got on the train. He would be a great companion to have along with Celeste and Lauran. What fun Hogwarts was going to be! Especially if I made the Quidditch team! Even if my father didn't want me to try out…

I had reached the Weasley house. Flying up to Celeste and Laurans' window I tapped lightly.

TAP! TAP! TAP!

The window was opened by a sleepy looking Celeste. I could see a disgruntled Lauran behind her.

"Whaddaya want?" Celeste asked. Then noticing my floating head said, "Oh, right your invisibility cloak. Let's go Lauran. Be right out Riley, just a second."

Then her head popped back inside and the window shut with a click. In a few minutes we were all flying side by side through London. The wind whipped my invisibility cloak around and I was once again visible.

We took turns throwing tennis balls and catching them. Occasionally Celeste or Lauran would miss and I would go in a spiraling dive to catch it inches from the ground. I never missed a throw. I never had either. It was just a natural talent, one my sister didn't share with me.

"Hey," Celeste started, "Let's go get the bat and practice hitting them too. Dad says we have a real talent doing that and would make great Beaters."

So we flew back to the house and got the bat. As it started to get light they went home to bed. I decided to put my cloak on properly and take a spin around London.

London really was magical at night. Even in the dawn's dim light it was sparkling and shining all over. I loved coming to London at night.

Soon I flew home and went to bed myself. When mum woke me up she asked why I looked so windblown.

"What did you do last night? Take a spin around London?" She laughed at her joke and walked out the door.

Chapter 5: The Girl Who Could Speak Snake

"Riley, get your self down to the car, NOW!" Mum shouted up the stairs. "It's time to go! We'll be late."

It was time to go to catch the train. We hopped in the car and drove towards King's Cross. As soon as we pulled up dad ran to get trolleys for our trunks. We wheeled them inside the station and started towards the platform.

"All you need to do is walk straight towards the barrier between platforms 9 and 10," Mum quickly explained, "Now you two go and we will follow."

So Lily and I started walking pointedly towards the barrier. Lily looked nervous. She started going faster and faster. Pretty soon she was running full speed ahead. I, however, continued walking calmly. She went barreling through the barrier. Wondering how she would stop on the other side, I followed.

I strode calmly through the barrier and saw that she had in fact managed to stop the trolley. Disappointed I loaded my trunk on the train in the compartment with all of Celeste and Laurans' things.

Scrambling off the train I saw my parents hugging my sister. They appeared to be crying. Sighing I walked over and waited for the hugging to stop. When it finally did, my sister got onto the train, blew a kiss to my parents, and went away.

I noticed that, not only did I barely get any hugs, but my parents also looked rather relieved as I boarded the train. Hoping for all that was good that my sister hadn't found my compartment I walked down the train looking for Spencer. Finally, giving up, I returned to my compartment and sat down.

There were still plenty of people outside saying goodbye. I noticed my sister was back down with my parents. Catching my dad's eye he mouthed the words "No Quidditch". I yelled back, "Yeah, right," and closed the window.

He rolled his eyes looking amused and turned back to my sister. Mum still hadn't stopped crying.

Slumping back into the seat I looked out the window again for any sign of Celeste, Lauran, or Spencer. Seeing none of them I figured they were on their way in. I could see George and Alicia down near my parents. Alicia held the hand of a young boy. Seeing him look at me I waved to him. His name was Greg, and he was the twins' younger brother. He waved back, smiling happily.

"There you are!" came a voice I recognized all to well as Lily's. "I've been looking all over."

Then leaning across me she waved to mum and dad. Disgusted I rolled my eyes. She smiled and blew kisses to them. Mum pretended to catch them and stick them on her face. Then she blew some back to Lily. I watched this feeling sick. Lily then sat down beside me.

"Look you're my sister, but I **don't** want to hang around with you. Why don't you go get your own friends and leave me alone?" I asked her angrily.

"Like I want to hang around with you rejects! I just want mum to think we like each other. You creeps can hang around by yourselves for all I care. I'm going up front with the cool people," she retorted evilly. I glared at her, thinking how best to curse her.

"And," she added, "I suggest you watch what you say to me. Or maybe you'd like to let me practice the full body bind on you?"

"I'd like to see you try…" I started when my trunk flew open. My sister was ghostly white. I stuck out my hand and grabbed my wand as it flew over. Then with a wave of my hand my trunk closed again. "Or is precious Lily scarred of her sister she foolishly thought was a squib." But Lily had gone running from the compartment, a look of pure terror on her face.

Looking out the window I saw her reappear next to mum. She said something and mum and dad looked at me. Pretending not to notice their pleas to catch my attention I sat down, turning my back on the window.

Just then Spencer walked into the compartment. He was lugging his trunk with an owl cage perched on top. I hurried over and grabbed the owl cage which looked dangerously close to falling. After setting her down on the seat I helped Spencer put his trunk in the rack.

"I've been waiting for you to show up. I've been here what seemed like hours!" I informed him.

"Oh, Dad got up a bit late. I had to wait to get a ride with him. Why are your parents waving like that?" He asked.

"Um… well I sort of spooked my sister a little. She told them, they must be mad. It's perfectly normal behavior, for them anyways. Just ignore it. That's what I'm doing," I replied uncomfortably.

Just then my sister popped her head in the window. "You're in for it now!" She told me happily. Then she stalked off to find her friends.

Choosing to ignore my parents no longer, I opened the window and popped my head out.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR SISTER? SHE CAME OUT IN TEARS!" Dad demanded. "YOU HAVEN'T EVEN LEFT YET AND ARE ALREADY IN TROUBLE AGAIN! YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST WAITED UNTIL YOU GOT TO SCHOOL!"

Unsuspecting that my father was yelling in Parseltounge, I yelled back at him. Unfortunately, I too spoke in Parseltounge. Oops. Now the whole platform was curious about what was going on.

My father went quiet. Mum looked pale. Everyone was whispering. Dad said something to mum and they walked towards the entrance to the train.

"Oh, snap! Now that was stupid," I said to myself. Then I noticed that Spencer was looking at me, stunned, "What'd I do this time?" I asked him quietly.

"You spoke snake to your father. That's a bad sign. I wouldn't have done that if I were you."

"I can't speak snake. It's not possible. I, oh fudge. I'm in for it now." I felt like I was going to be sick in a minute.

When my parents walked in Spencer walked out. I knew he didn't want to be around for this one. Mum covered her mouth with her hand and stood looking at me. Dad opened his mouth to say something but closed it when he had nothing to say.

"Um… I didn't know I could do that. I promise. Honestly I won't do it again…" I trailed off. They just looked at me. "Would you say something or leave me alone?" I asked miserably.

"Yes, we'll do both. You need to watch what tongue you use at Hogwarts. Now I'll ask the important question. Who was that?" Mum asked me.

"Oh, that's Spencer Wood. He's Oliver Wood's son." I replied feeling slightly better.

"Right," mum said, "We'll be off now. The train will be leaving soon. Have a good time at school."

My dad opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it and left. Soon Spencer came back in. He was followed by Celeste and Lauran.

"Cool. You're the girl who can speak snake," Celeste commented.

"Yeah, I guess so. Where did Dad say that Chamber of Secrets was again, in the girl's bathroom, right? It's in the one with Moaning Myrtle right? Hmm… this could be cool after all."

"That's our Riley," Lauran said looking proud. "Did you ever find that Marauder's Map of your dad's?"

"Of course I did. Wouldn't have left without it," I said patting my robes. "Not to mention the invisibility cloak," I added grinning at them slyly.

"But will one fit four?" Spencer asked.

"No problem. I swiped Lily's too. It's not like she'd ever use it anyways." I replied pleased that Spencer had officially joined our group. I couldn't wait for the train to arrive at the school.

Chapter 6: He's a Malfoy

As the train chugged along we got more and more excited. Spencer and the twins were getting along jovially. It seemed to be a very uneventful ride. Yet, we did not know what my sister was planning up front.

It turns out she knew I had escaped mum and dad's wrath without punishment. And she wanted revenge. As we sat, unsuspecting, they were plotting up in the front compartments. What happened next would surely go down in Hogwarts history. The whole school would be buzzing for weeks.

But, more important than the school's buzzing, was the fact that it would be recorded in most history books as Lily's and my first battle. People would read about it for centuries to come.

Anyway, back to the present. We were sitting there talking when the train started to slow. It got progressively colder and darker. Fairly soon all the lights went out and the train stopped.

Confusedly, I stuck out my hand and my wand floated into it. Muttering a quick spell, lumos, the tip of my wand lit up. Celeste and Lauran followed my example. It was rather creepy because the wands put off an eerie sort of glow.

"What's going on?" Celeste whispered to me, "What happened to the lights."

Crossing to the window and wiping off the fog that had formed on it I peered out. I could see nothing but darkness. I moved towards the compartment door.

"I don't know," I finally hissed back. "The lights are out all along the train though. I hope we aren't out of fuel or whatever runs this train."

Spencer came up behind me and we cautiously slid the door open. There, in the hall, stood a tall figure in a black cloak. Thankfully we hadn't opened the door farther because then we would have announced our presence.

"Which one are they in?" The voice came from under the cloak.

"They're in that one." A finger popped out accompanying a second voice I recognized as my sister's. "I hope this works."

Pulling my wand out from behind me I hissed in Spencer's ear, "Stay here. When I whistle you three come out ready to cast any spells you may know. This could get ugly."

I stepped into the hall as the figure tried to spin around. I cleared my throat to announce my presence. My sister's head popped out of the cloak. But, she didn't look mad. In fact she was smiling. Oh, fudge. I'd done it this time.

"Welcome, dear sister," she told me. Then, to the person under her, "Put me down you imbecile. Now! Logan I said NOW!"

Sighing as she was finally lowered to the floor I said, "What is going on? You are one weird person. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go back inside with my friends."

"Oh, sorry they're all tied up by now. I'm sure of it," She clearly was enjoying herself. "My apologies, but it was necessary."

Flinging the door open I saw that she was right. They were tied up back to back. There were five big looking fellows standing around them, wands pointed straight at them.

Whirling back to face my sister I held my temper, "What do think you are doing?" I asked her calmly, "Why are you doing this?" I pointed my wand at her.

"Oh, dear sister, this is payback. All those years our parents favored you." She glared at me as I let out a snort of laughter and struggled to contain myself. "Childish. As I was saying, all those years they ignored me (another snort of laughter) and you got the attention. You got to go to Muggle School. You were dealt terrifying blows of punishment. You were the favored one. Then today, you got away with all punishment. All because you, you greasy little slime ball can speak snake."

I cut in here, "Um… excuse me but are we thinking of the same parents? The ones who thought I was a squib, the ones who hate when I walk in on one of your "precious little moments", the ones who cringe at the very thought of me getting into trouble. The very parents who were so angry at me over something I had no control over, something like appearing on a school roof. They babied you, crooned over you, while I was getting screamed at for accidentally stepping on your foot or spilling my milk on the way to the table."

"Yes, those parents. They loved you enough to let you out into the world. I was stuck at home. You were allowed to run free. I was in the prison of our house," she retorted. "And now, you must pay for it. You move, or say anything, and your friends get it." She laughed a cold laugh that made my hair stand on end.

"Face me, sister. Face me so I can see your pain when I um…" She trailed off. I remembered she didn't know any spells.

Without moving an inch I willed the rope to be severed. It immediately snapped into pieces.

Celeste and Lauran covered the goons that had tied them up while Spencer moved to my side. My wand was pointed at my sister. I slowly lowered it. Stepping closer I grabbed her arm and the arm of her accomplice. I dragged them up to the front of the train and left them in their compartment. Celeste followed the rest of them up the hall and into the compartment.

The lights came back on and the train started moving again. I looked around the compartment. Seeing a pale sneering face looking back at me I realized who my sister's accomplice was.

After warning my sister that if she left the compartment again before we reached the school that I would have to curse her, we left for our end of the train.

I felt quite sick and was quiet for the rest of the short ride. No one seemed to notice and went on like nothing had happened.

"Who was that guy with her though?" Lauran asked as we neared Hogwarts.

"He's a Malfoy," I replied. "Logan Malfoy is my sister's friend. That can not be good."


	3. Chapters 7, 8 & 9

Chapter 7: The Prophesy

The train had arrived at Hogwarts and we hurried to get off. Pushing through the crowd outside, I struggled to stay with Celeste and Lauran. Spencer followed right behind me.

"First years come this way. First years over here," a loud, booming voice said. "No pushing the younger kids now Wesley you'll all get to the castle."

I saw a tall, strong looking boy shoving some first years out of his way. I assumed the voice was directed to him. We followed the sound of the voice as best as possible through the crowd. Winding our way back and forth, back and forth we finally reached the far end of the platform where the first years were gathering.

"Now you'll want four to a boat. Go ahead and start getting in. Are there any more first years?" The voice belonged to a tall, skinny man with thick glasses on. His voice didn't suit his appearance. We soon found out why. His voice had been magically modified so he could be heard over the other students.

"Okay, four to a boat now. All of you pile in. Go ahead, no need to be scared," the man said in his normal voice.

"Scared of what?" I asked Spencer quietly, "Falling in the lake? What's to be scared of?"

Spencer stifled a laugh as the man walked by us. We climbed into the boat that Celeste and Lauran were already in. Soon the boats magically started across the water. We rounded a bend and saw none other than Hogwarts castle towering over the water.

"Oooh," Celeste said awed, "It's really big. And it looks so, well, for lack of a better word, magical."

We pulled into an underground cave. Leading from it was a tall, sweeping staircase. We stumbled up the stairs and were greeted at the top by a beautiful lady. She looked to be part vela. She had long hair that hung halfway down her back.

"Good evening students," she spoke with a French sounding accent. "We are pleased to welcome you to Hogwarts. I am Professor Delacour, the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. Follow me please."

We followed Professor Delacour through the double doors and down the hall into a room.

"Remember where we are now," I hissed to Celeste, "Those boats could be quite fun later on."

She nodded and passed the message to Lauran. We then looked around the room. It was kind of on the small side and reflected the occupants' general feeling of being small, lost, and, if it was possible, scared.

"Students if you will please follow me it is time for you to be sorted into your houses," Professor Delacour said coming back into the room. "Fix yourselves so you look presentable. Get in two straight lines please. Let's go, follow me."

We left the room and walked down the hall towards the growing noise of the Great Hall. We passed through the doors to the Great Hall and it instantly silenced. Then the whispers broke out. Glancing at Spencer beside me I rolled my eyes. We were both use to whispers because of our famous parents. Lauran shifted nervously in front of me though.

"Students, quiet down now," I noticed the voice belonged to a wise looking wizard in the middle of a large table at the front of the room. "We would like to welcome our students, old and new, back to school."

Watching the wizard I knew immediately he was the headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Now we will have Sorting and then, dig in!" the Headmaster continued.

Professor Delacour brought a three-legged stool and an old hat to the front and center of the hall. She set the hat on the stool and stepped back. The hat sat there for a minute and then it started to sing.

_A warning like this has not been heard_

_Since the last Potter was here_

_And now, I fear it must be made_

_Before this year goes by_

_For in this new first year class_

_Two descendents lie_

_Of that famous hero boy_

_About their family a prophesy was made _

_After the Great Lord died_

_A set of twins_

_One good one bad_

_Would fall upon the time_

_The Protector would be the stronger one_

_The Great Evil, the favored child_

_And hate would grow between the two_

_Stronger than we could imagine_

_The wand of one we shall not name_

_Would save this troubled land_

_Used for the greatest good_

_We could imagine_

_The only way to save the world_

_From this Great Evil_

_Would be to train the right one_

_And leave the other one in despair_

_But choose wrong and you will suffer_

_More pain than ever known_

_Destruction would spread _

_And doom you would bring _

_Throughout the troubled land_

_So choose you right _

_Or you choose wrong_

_Or do not choose at all_

_Hats off to those_

_Who make the choice_

_I do not fancy you_

_For the fate of our lives _

_Rests in your hands _

_You, the strongest in the land_

The hat fell silent and the hall was the quietest it had ever been. People were staring at Lily and me. I looked at Spencer and he shifted uneasily. He looked questionably at me as if asking if it was true. I just shrugged and looked away. Then the Headmaster cleared his throat and the sorting began.

Chapter 8: Head over Heels for Spencer

"Patel, Patria" Professor Delacour called.

After a period of quiet a shout came from the hat, "Ravenclaw!"

Professor Delacour continued to call names as Spencer started whispering to me. I ignored it for a while then turned and just stared at him.

"What was that about?" he asked, "It was like it was talking about you."

"Yeah, I must be the Great…" I started to reply. I broke off when I heard my sister's name called. Whirling around, I met her evil little gaze without blinking. She then put on a precious angel sort of smile and sat on the stool as the hat was placed o her head. My stomach did a little flip as I waited to find out her house. I had a sinking feeling she would be in-

"Slythrin," the hat called out.

"Oh, crap, she is going to be so dead when dad finds out about this one!" I whispered to Spencer hopefully.

"Potter, Riley," Professor Delacour called out.

Walking up to the stool I sat down and the hat was put onto my head. It smelled musty and old, just like a library does.

"Hmm, where should I put you? You are more talented than your sister, that's for sure. A thirst to prove yourself, just like your father had. But you have your Grandmother's heart of gold. You would bring glory wherever you went. Hmm, I can tell that you, however, are not at all like your sister. Sure, you're both talented, but she wants power and you only want to protect those you care for, even those you don't yet know. You will do great in…."

"GRYFFINDOR" it yelled to the whole school.

The Gryffindors started screaming and cheering as I walked over and took a seat near the end of the table. I hoped that Spencer, Celeste, and Lauran would get into Gryffindor too. I shot a look at my sister of pure malice and smiled evilly at her. She returned the look and leaned over to whisper to her crony next to her, Logan Malfoy.

Another wave of clapping erupted as Spencer became the next new Gryffindor. I hugged him as he came to sit down. My sister, for some odd reason, turned the reddest I had ever seen her and looked especially mad. This I pointed out to Spencer as another wave of clapping shook the table and Celeste joined our number. Crossing my fingers, I prayed for the love of all that is holy, that Lauran be in Gryffindor too. She didn't do too well by herself.

It seemed like forever between the time she called Weasley, Lauran and the time the sorting hat made its decision…

"Gryffindor!" the roar came from the hat. Screaming loudly I hugged Lauran and then Celeste hugged her. And, laughing, we sat down to our feast.

"That was some good food. It's better than I've had in a long time. Mum isn't exactly the best cook in the world," I said after we'd all finished our feast.

We got up to leave with our house. As we got up I tripped, flipping over Spencer and landing on the floor on his other side. Laughing he helped me up. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Sure, my back hurt, but I would have paid a million pounds to have seen the look of shock on my face. It must have been downright hilarious. Celeste and Lauran were practically rolling on the floor with laughter.

On the way to wherever it was we were going, Celeste, in particular, wouldn't shut up about it. She was grinning from ear to ear as she kept poking fun at me and my klutziness.

"Oh, Spencer you should have seen the last guy she liked enough to trip over. She broke her arm. They had to change schools after it decided to fix itself. The look on that kid's face was priceless, wasn't it Lauran?" Celeste went on and on as I grew increasingly madder and madder.

Finally I lost it and whirled around to face her after she said something about it being lucky Spencer liked me so much or he'd of left after I tripped over him without even walking anywhere.

"Oh shut up already would you?" I lapsed into my extremely British accent I managed to stifle except when I was very mad, usually it was reserved for my dad. "You really should shut up if you know what's good for you."

We frequently threatened each other with more and more absurd things we would do to the other one. Especially Celeste and me, it was sort of a running competition with us.

"Yeah, what would you do this time?" Celeste teased. "You can't easily beat my last one, can you?"

"It would be spectacular. I might tell you real worms were only gummy worms I had bewitched to wriggle. Oh, but I already did that to Lily one time. Got in a lot of trouble for that one I did. She, like an idiot, fell for it multiple times. Mum wasn't too happy…" I trailed off. Celeste had fallen to the floor in fits of laughter. Any story about what I had done to Lily was worth ten threats on our scale. I had won again.

"Oh… you _are_ mean to that sister of yours. But it's worth it. Remember when she first tried to fly. What a precious memory. That helicopter came awfully close to hitting her." Celeste said laughing.

"Wow. Look at that. How are we supposed to get through that crowd?" Lauran asked pointing to the blocked hallway ahead.

"It's impossible." I replied, "Oh wait, no were there. It's the Gryffindor Common Room entrance."

We went through the portrait hole entrance and into the room beyond.

"For all you that didn't already hear, the password is Caputs Draconus." A voice started, "Now, boys up the stair case on your left. Girls, it's the same on your right. Off you go to bed now."

Saying goodnight to Spencer we went up our staircase and into our dormitory. I, being very tired, didn't pay close attention to the room and collapsed on my bed. Had I paid closer attention I would have seen big blue eyes looking through the window. We had no idea, as we went to sleep, that we were being watched.

Chapter 9: Under Watchful Eyes I Live

What with classes starting and then trying to convince my dad to send my broom, which my sister apparently tried to steal before we left and I didn't notice it was missing from my trunk, Things were pretty busy. We had a small bit of homework. And by small I mean it could be larger, if we had more classes. I was very busy.

One night, shortly after finishing my homework in the common room I looked out the window. What I saw sent me into near fits of hysteria. For a second there had been a pair of large, bulbous, blue eyes peering in the window. Spencer tried to convince me I had fallen asleep for a minute and had a short nightmare. I just laughed at him. I knew I hadn't imagined those eyes. I had felt like I was being watched ever since we had reached Hogwarts about a week ago. It was un-nerving.

Wandering over to the window I opened it and peered out. Muttering the incantation I watched as my wand tip lit up. I saw something shrink from my sight. Seeing an owl flying my way with a large package I stepped aside.

The owl flying through the window was my own, Zandra. I got the name out of an old school book of mum's. It means defender of mankind. Anyway, she was carrying a package from dad that was suspiciously shaped like a broom.

"Yes, it's my broom. I think." I cried as I ripped the wrappings off the package, "Thank you dad." A note tumbled out of the paper. I picked it up and read it.

_Dear Riley,_

_I suggest you don't mention this to your mum. She won't be too happy with us for this conspiracy. I suggest you don't advertise my sending it to you, seeing as how you aren't supposed to have it there. You may try out for Quidditch if you want. You would make an excellent Seeker. I expect the school has raised quite a concern over your being a Parseltongue. You watch what you say and what tongue you speak. It caused me a lot of trouble my second year. Have fun and don't be late to any classes or I won't let you play Quidditch. And if I find you've been taunting your sister I'll get you good._

_Good Luck,_

_Dad_

_P.S. Why didn't you tell me your sister got put in Gryffindor? And, furthermore, that you were in Slytherin? We will have nice long discussion about that next time I write. You told me that wand wouldn't be used for evil. You keep your word._

Reading that last part my mouth fell open. I spluttered for a minute then nearly exploded.

"That lying, sniveling, cheating, suck up of a sister, she's in for it this time. Retarded good for nothing, I'll get her, believe me," I muttered, but loud enough that everyone could hear me. The British accent being pronounced when I was angry made me sound more menacing.

"What did she do this time?" Celeste asked sighing. She didn't sound too interested. I swore I'd 'get my sister' at least five times a day.

"She told my dad _she_ was in Gryffindor and _I_ was in Slytherin! That low-down, dirty, rotten," And I called my sister some more, well, not very pretty names. "Now I'm in trouble for 'not telling him'. She's the lying scum!"

"Wow, Lily has stooped to a new low. That's um…" Lauran trailed off.

"It's horrendous of her." I filled in the blank for her.

"No, it's something you would do to save your own butt. You've lied to them before, haven't you?" Lauran pointed out.

"I most certainly have not!" All three of them shot me looks, "Okay, not lied, exactly. I prefer the term exaggerated the truth. And only that one time when I let Lily ride my broom and she almost hit the helicopter. But that was to save her butt as well as mine. This is crossing the line!"

"Okay we agree with you there. But what will you do to her? We want to help!" Celeste said eagerly.

"Okay here's the plan…" I started then looking over at the window saw the eyes again. Leaning closer to everyone else I muttered, "Don't look now but the eyes are back. We need to catch that thing… whatever it is. I'll stun it, Celeste you catch it. Spencer, Lauran, be ready to disarm it if need be. Ready, on three. One… two… three…"

I shot it with a beam of light and Celeste sent another spell to catch it. We all looked at what we had caught.

It appeared to be a House Elf. It appeared to have mismatched socks and multiple hats. I realized who it was immediately. It was Dobby, a friend of my dad's. He was a unique sort of House Elf. The only one I'd met that wanted paid. I saw him frequently as he helped Mum clean once a week. He was quite fond of my dad.

"Um… Riley, yeah, I don't think we can disarm a House Elf. When will he wake up? And why did you stun him anyway?" Spencer asked pointedly.

"He'll wake up when I wake him up. It's just Dobby. He will think it's an honor to have been stunned by Harry Potter's daughter. Shut up now, I have to remember the spell." I said slightly angrily.

"It's um… Rousenow. That's the one!" I exclaimed as Dobby sat up rubbing his head.

"Why did Riley Potter stun me like that? Riley Potter has good aim, I am proud." Dobby sputtered.

"Sorry Dobby. I got carried away. Why are you here anyway?" I asked the disgruntled elf.

"Riley Potter's dad sent me to find out what was going on. I am forever in his debt. He will be interested muchly in the hat's song, I think, and how Riley Potter's sister lied to him. He might not like it though. I am keeping a closely eye on Riley Potter all year long. He told me so." Dobby replied like it was obvious.

"Um… right. So dad doesn't trust me. I'm not overly surprised. What did he say about Quidditch?" I asked trying to sound off hand.

"Only that yous be a muchly good player and would try out no matters what he says. He likes that defianceness insidely you."

Trying not to look overly pleased I told Dobby to go do whatever he was going to do and report to my dad. He left right away to do just that.

"That's one odd House Elf," Spencer commented. "Is he yours?"

"Not exactly, he's not really anyone's. He wants paying, that one does." I replied, relieved that it had just been Dobby watching me, "It looks like we'll be living under watchful eyes this year."


	4. Chapters 10, 11 & 12

Chapter 10: A Plot for Sweet Revenge

When we entered the common room the next morning there was a crowd around the message board. Pushing my way closer so I could see, I stood on tip-toe to read the new message.

Quidditch Try-Outs

All Quidditch try-outs will be held this evening down on the Quidditch field from 3-6 PM. Please arrive promptly at 3. Try-outs are open to all of the school. First Years are reminded that they rarely make the team and not to be discouraged. There is always next year.

Sincerely,

Fleur Delacour

Deputy Headmistress

Head of Gryffindor House

"What does it say, Riley?" Lauran asked me eagerly.

"Quiditch try-outs are today!" I replied happily. Then, getting an idea, I smiled evilly. "Yes, we have an idea. An evil plot to get Lilly back for all she's done since we got to Hogwarts. Mwahh haa haa," I laughed my evil laugh. Okay, okay I tried anyway.

Spencer ran down the stairs at that moment. He nearly ran over some 3rd year girls. "Sorry. Hey, Riley what's that about? That's a lot of people it is."

"Only what I've been waiting for the whole year. Quidditch try-outs! I'm going. Anyone else want to come?" I replied excitedly.

"No duh, we're coming. All of us." Celeste replied like it was the most obvious question in the world, "Now what's your 'evil plot'? And how will we not get caught?"

"Oh, it's simple really. Lily has been bragging all year about being able to fly really well. We all know that's not true. So, here's the plan…" I explained it to them in hushed tones.

As 3 'o clock neared I started searching everywhere for Lily. Most of the time I avoided her, but today I needed to find her. I checked the Great Hall, Library, upstairs classrooms, and the nearby grounds. I was getting tired of looking when I finally saw her come up out of the dungeons with a lot of other Slytherins. It was perfect. Now she couldn't refuse.

"Lily! LILY!" I screamed as I ran towards her. "Lily, are you trying out for Quidditch tonight? You're such a great player. Come on. Your house needs you, right?" I knew she was lousy, but if I said that my plan would backfire.

"Um… I don't think I will. No, definitely not. I don't want to have an unfair advantage over the others," She tried to weasel her way out of it nobly, but I would make her fail miserably.

"But since you have such a natural talent it wouldn't be unfair. It would be even fairer." I insisted.

"Yeah," some kid spoke up. I recognized him as Logan Malfoy. "It wouldn't be unfair. And since your so good and everything, or is that all talk?"

Nice job Malfoy! This kid wasn't as bad as I thought he might be. Wait… did I just say that about a Malfoy? Never mind, I take it back, all of it!

"Come on Lily. Or are you chicken? Oh, my poor sister is scared." I continued to bug her about it in a mock sympathetic voice.

"I don't have a broom though," She knew this was her last chance. Oh, but did I bust it!

"Lily, don't be an imbecile! They have brooms for you to use. You have to go. Come on!" I told her. She had no way of backing out now. I had won.

"Fine I'll go, if I must. But I bet that I get on my house's team and you don't get on yours." She bet stupidly. She always had.

"It's a deal. See you later. I've got to go find Spencer. Where could he be?" I had struck a nerve. She must have liked Spencer or something. And she was mad about the Quidditch try-outs. Anyway she glared at me. If looks could kill, then I'd be dead and buried right now. My blood seemed to freeze, but I met her glare without blinking.

"See you loser." She spat at me, breaking her gaze. I had won twice in five minutes! That had to be a record. I **_LOVED_** school!

Chapter 11: Quidditch Try-outs

Celeste and Lauren were in the dormitory when I walked in. I was smiling bigger than ever before.

"Did she fall for it?" Celeste asked eagerly, "Wait, no, don't tell me. The look on your face says it all."

"Hook, line, and sinker," I said happily. The truth was that I didn't quite get that expression since I had never gone fishing. But one of my muggle teachers had used it often.

"Um, right, so we have to complete the plan now?" Lauren asked me.

"No duh. What else would we do? I need to get my broom and then we can go." I started over to my trunk when the latches undid themselves and the lid flew open. My broom went flying across the room and into my hand. The smile fell off my face. "Oh, shoot. Not again. Why must I do that? Wait, why can I do that?"

Celeste and Lauren played dumb. "Do what?" Lauren asked like nothing had happened. I knew they had seen though.

"Oh, never mind. Let's go!" I slid down the stair rail. And when I reached the bottom Spencer was there and saw me coming. He dodged out of the way before I went sailing into him.

"Nice, Riley. You may want to tone it down a bit though. Save your energy for later." He was laughing as he helped me up off the floor. Unfortunately I hadn't perfected my landing and was sitting on the floor on my butt.

"I need to work on that landing." I said sadly rubbing where I had smacked my back on the ground, "That hurt. Oh, well. I'm ready. What about you?"

"Yeah, let's go." He replied still laughing. Celeste and Lauren had gotten down the stairs, in the normal walking way, unharmed.

Celeste rolled her eyes at me as if to say how immature I was acting. But she could barely hold back a smile. I knew she would dearly love to go sliding down a stair rail.

I rolled my eyes back and we left to go down to the Quidditch Pitch. The Quidditch Pitch was filled with hordes of students with brooms and it wasn't even three yet.

"Holy crap, look at that. How're we going to beat out all of those people?" Lauren asked awed.

"Well," I started, "They are doing one general try-out for the whole school. We only have to beat out a fourth of them. I assume we'll separate into houses as soon as try-outs start. But we'd better go in now."

No sooner had we gone into the pitch then four robed figures walked into the announcer's booth. They were the Quidditch captains. A fifth or sixth year girl, the Ravenclaw captain, with raven black hair was dressed in blue robes. The green robed figure was a sixth or seventh year boy who looked quite dumb. He was the Slytherin captain. The purple robed figure had curly brown hair. She was the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain. The final figure was the one my eyes were glued to. He was the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. Dressed in red robes, he had brownish-blonde hair and was only a second year. However, he seemed to hold the most respect. All he had to do was raise his hand and the whole Pitch fell silent.

"He's kind of cute, don't you think?" Lauren whispered to Celeste.

"Cute? He's downright hot!" Celeste whispered back, "Now shut up! He's going to say something."

Sure enough he started talking. "May I have your attention please?"

"_THIS GUY IS EITHER POLITE OR AN IDIOT. HE ALREADY HAS OUR ATTENTION_," I couldn't help thinking.

"Thank you. As you can tell we don't have enough room to hold all of your try-outs right here. So we are going to split you up into houses. Hufflepuff will be down by the lake, Slytherin on the practice field, Ravenclaw by the games keeper's hut, and Gryffindor right here. Each house goes out a separate door. Then when you've all gotten to the proper place we can hold try-outs." He explained.

The students started filing their way out of the Pitch. We pushed our way to the center of the pitch. I caught a glimpse of my sister glaring at me. I made a face at her as she was pulled off into the crowd.

"Um, okay. I think we'll have a very interesting year, especially if some of you get on the team." The Gryffindor Captain said looking pointedly at Celeste and Lauran who both had drool coming out of their mouths. "By the way, my name is Colby Seaworth. I'm the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. Let's get started!"

First years were the last to try-out. All the older house members had already gone when my turn came up. I was slightly nervous but was very confident of my self. I knew I could make the team.

"Name plea…" Colby had started to say when we heard a scream and some shouts, "What the heck was that?"

I, of course, already knew. It was my sister attempting to fly. Trying not to smile or laugh I replied, "Must be some poor person attempting to try-out, sounds like it's coming from the practice field. I'm going to see if I can do anything."

I hopped on my broom and soared off. Within seconds I heard someone flying right behind me. Looking back over my shoulder I saw it was Colby. He looked concerned. I spied an object way over my head flying out of control and going higher every second.

"Oh, shoot. If she goes any higher…" I said to myself trailing off. I soared higher than I ever had before. The climb was steep but if I was going to reach her in time…

"Go back down!" Colby shouted from somewhere below, "I'll get them."

"No way," I shouted back, "I have a suspicious feeling that's my sister! You go get help, NOW!"

"Fine," he said going into a steep dive and zooming down to the ground.

I thought how stupid I had been tricking her to try-out. Another plot, ruined and blown up in my face, I really need to think these out more…

"Help, Riley. Someone, Anyone, HELP ME!" Lily cried out, "I don't care who you are just help me!"

"Hold on Lily, I'm almost to you!" I yelled back at her. Now my stomach was in my throat. I'd get blamed for this if my parents found out, even if I hadn't made her try-out. I'd be in big trouble.

I finally got within reaching length of her. I saw that she had passed out from lack of oxygen that resulted from flying too high. I pulled her safely onto my broom and fought to keep consciousness myself. I was going to pass out too if I wasn't careful. I had to get lower quickly. Grabbing the broom I shot in to a vertical dive fighting to keep conscious.

I neared the ground, pulled out of the dive and let go of my sister, rolling off the broom. Then my vision blurred and I blacked out.

I woke an hour later in the hospital wing. My head hurt and I felt like I had been sat on by an elephant. I ached horribly all over, but my ribs back hurt the worst. My vision was slightly blurry and I struggled to sit up.

"She's awake Lauran, or I think so." Celeste said softly. Or to her it seemed softly. To me it sounded like a trumpet blast in my ear. At least it cleared my vision, and my head.

"Oh good lordy, don't talk so blasted loud, Celeste. I hurt enough already." I said crossly.

"Yup, she's awake," Spencer said laughingly.

I strained to sit up but gave up because it hurt so badly. Instead I rolled my head around to look at Celeste.

"What happened to Lily? Is she dead, wait that's not possible! It would bring me too much joy." I demanded Celeste to give me information.

"She's fine, came right to after you hit the ground and walked away without looking back or asking to see if you would be okay. Honestly, though that was a spectacular dive if I've ever seen one! Oh, you made the team, Seeker. Colby seemed impressed. He'll probably come in any minute now checking to see if you're up. He seemed pretty keen on you getting better." She looked at Spencer pointedly as she said this. If he had any reaction I didn't see it since it took a lot of strain to move my neck.

"Yes! What about you guys? Did you make the team?" I asked excitedly.

"We're not sure yet." Spencer said. "Most of the team will be posted tonight. We'll find out then. How do you feel?"

"Like I hit the ground at ninety miles an hour and then was sat on by an elephant!" I exclaimed meaning every word.

We all laughed. Well, they laughed and I started to, but it hurt do badly that I stopped very quickly.

"So when can I leave?" I asked them hopefully. I hated anything to do with hospitals.

"As soon as you can walk out of here, dear." A voice said. "Just get up and go. It's a long walk up to Gryffindor Tower though. You may want to be careful." The voice belonged to Madam Samina, the school nurse.

"Okay I'll go now then," I said and sat up.

Spencer and Celeste helped me climb all the stairs to the common room. Lauran led the way looking important. I went to sleep and slept for a few hours. When I woke up I was still quite sore.

Chapter 12: The Second Attempt

I was excited to find out who had made the Quidditch team. I woke up early and went downstairs. (Slowly because I still hurt all over.) I looked at the board and saw that the results hadn't been posted. Confused I went back upstairs to attempt to wake up Celeste and Lauran since they hated getting up early. Surprisingly enough they had just woken up and were getting dressed.

"There you are. Why are you up so early?" Celeste said sleepily, "You don't have to get up at the crack of dawn you know."

"I was checking on the Quidditch team post. Looking to see who had made it. It wasn't there. Do you know why?" I replied confusedly.

"Yup," Lauran said unhappily. "We won't know until today who is on the team since none of the rest of us tried out after your little adventure. We didn't want to leave you. Colby said we could try-out today."

"But you told me that… Oh, never mind." I was still thoroughly confused, "I need to try-out too, right?"

"No, Colby said you didn't have to. You automatically made the team. You were the only one left trying out for Seeker and were a billion times better then anyone else was."

"But, that's not fair, is it? I didn't have to try-out officially or anything. Maybe I could have really bad eyesight or something. I am going to try-out anyways." I informed them.

"And waste your time?" Celeste asked me rolling her eyes, "You and your fairness. You're already on the team. What's the point?"

"The point is to make me feel better. I don't want to feel like I got on the team because I did something stupid and then fixed it. I want to feel like I earned it." There was no point in arguing with me because I had made up my mind.

"Okay, whatever you want to do, Riley." Celeste rolled her eyes again and we headed down to breakfast.

"And you want to try-out because?" Spencer asked me on the way down to the Quidditch pitch, "Honestly Riley, you can be pretty stupid sometimes."

"Oh shut up. Sure I have my fair share of mistakes. FINE! I have more than my fair share of mistakes." I corrected myself after a look from Lauran, "But I am**_ NOT_** stupid! Might I remind you that I am currently the top of our year? THAT DOESN'T SOUND STUPID TO ME!" I hated when anyone called me stupid. It went back to the days of Lily taunting me during our childhoods.

"Spencer, back away _slowly_." Lauren told him quickly. "Might I suggest you never call Riley 'stupid' or 'slow' again. Stubborn is a better word."

"Okay." Spencer looked at me apologetically. He had never seen me very angry before. "Sorry, Riles."

"I'm sorry. I do have a stupidity when it comes to common sense. I know you didn't mean it. It's just that I've been called stupid all of my life by my sister, muggle kids, even my parents. I just started proving them wrong." I felt very bad about blowing up slightly okay I basically blew a gasket but whatever.

We walked the rest of the way to the Quidditch pitch in silence. And not content silence either. No this was that horrible awkward silence you get when everyone is afraid to talk. So, all in all, I was relieved when we got to the pitch. Colby seemed oblivious to any awkwardness, poor guy.

"Okay, let's get started. Riley what are you doing here?" Colby asked just noticing that I had come too.

"Well, since I never properly got to try-out, I figured I'd give it a go." I said shrugging.

Colby looked at me then said, "Okay whatever floats your boat. I can tell you love flying. You go first." He pointed at Spencer.

Spencer shot him a weird look and then took off. I looked at Celeste questionably, but she pretended to be absorbed in the try-out. Glancing over at Lauran I figured it best not to bother her. She had turned a peculiar shade of green from nerves. I didn't want to make it worse.

"Okay you next Lauran." Colby said once Spencer was on the ground again.

Lauran took a deep breath and grabbed the club Colby was handing her. She was trying-out as a Beater. She was perfectly fine after taking off and preformed perfectly. Celeste got increasingly more nervous as Lauran's try-out neared the end.

Soon it was her turn and I stood by myself. Spencer was being sulky and had gone into the stands to 'get a better view of my try-out'. Lauran had to go to the bathroom and Celeste was up in the air with Colby throwing stuff for her to hit. All too soon Lauran had come back and gone up with Celeste into the stands. I stood on the ground waiting for Colby to get the snitch out of the box. I wished he'd hurry up.

"Okay I'll release it now. Give it thirty seconds and then go after it. Ready? You can try as many times as you like, and you're still on the team. Go!" Colby shouted.

I gave the tiny zooming object a half minutes head start then mounted and zoomed after it. I saw it within five seconds and had caught it within ten. I loved this game. It was so easy but it was fun at the same time.

"Wow! That's impressive. Okay let's see a dive. Catch the ping pong ball before it hits the ground." Colby called to me.

He threw it across the pitch and I watched it start to fall. I had calculated where I would reach it and was off in less then a second. I reached out my hand and swerved at the last second to avoid crashing into the stands. I threw it back to Colby and he dropped it straight down. I dived for it and once again caught it and swerved, this time a foot from the ground.

Colby landed and I threw him the ball. "Wow. You are the best Seeker I've ever seen. You should play professionally. You're good enough to now. You were already on the team, but now I'm not letting you go off the team. You have no choice. You are our new Seeker." He was beaming as he said this.

The others came down from the stands. Spencer looked at me in disbelief. Then I saw him shoot another look at Colby. He didn't like Colby, but why?

"Nice Riley. But you've done better. That last dive was a bit shaky. You need to keep your head down more." A familiar voice said behind me. I whirled around to see my dad walking across the Quidditch Pitch.

**Oh snap. Was I in trouble!**


	5. Chapters 13, 14, & 15

Chapter 13: In Trouble, or Not?

"Dad, what are you doing here? You aren't supposed to be here. It's got to be against the rules or something." I was near hysterical. I mean here I was looking forward to a whole year without my parents and he just showed up at my school. How rude! What would you say? Dad, I'm glad to see you?

"Well, you're welcoming aren't you? Aren't you going to give me a hug or something?" My dad said calmly.

"Well, no that thought didn't cross my mind when you came waltzing over here. Why are you here?" I yelled at him.

He didn't seem concerned. "I missed this field. Mind if I have a go on your broom, Riley?"

He had yanked the broom out of my hand before I could say anything. I stood there open mouthed and staring as he soared into the open air. "Dad, you have to come down here. Why are you here anyway? I didn't do anything to get in trouble."

Spencer fought back a laugh. I glared at him menacingly. He pretended to have something in his throat and started coughing violently.

"Dad, if you'd just land we could talk about this rationally. Dad? Oh, snap, WATCH OUT FOR THE…. goalpost." I added as he hit the bubble blower shaped post. "A little out of practice aren't we?" I asked as he landed, rubbing his leg in pain.

"No, I'm just out of date. I never had a broom this nice when I was your age. So, do you want to know why I'm here?" He asked me finally.

"Yes!" I cried loudly. He obviously was oblivious to the fact that I had already asked him this multiple times.

"No, I don't think you do." He teased me incessantly but my patience was running out. Thankfully he noticed and stopped teasing, or I couldn't have been responsible for my actions.

"Okay, here's the deal. I asked Dobby to check up on you. He was supposed to watch you all the time. I was suspicious of your…"

"DAD," I screamed before whispering to him, "They don't know about the wand. I suggest you don't say anything in front of anyone."

"Fine, I think it's best if you come with me and we talk alone." Dad told me grabbing hold of my arm and dragging me off. I stuck out my hand and my broom that had lain forgotten on the ground jumped into it.

"Wow, they didn't used to do that. How come it didn't work for me?" Dad asked me.

"Um…. I don't know exactly. It doesn't do that for anyone else either."

"Well let's get back up to the castle," He grabbed my arm forcefully. "I'm sure you have a lot to tell me."

There was no point in answering seeing as how I wasn't getting out of it, so we walked into the school in silence. No sooner had we stepped through the doors then Lily showed up looking quite pleased with herself. As soon as she saw us, however, the smile dropped off of her face. I smirked at her.

"Daddy, what are you doing here is something wrong with Mum? Is she ill?" Lily faked being worried quite well.

I tugged myself loose from Dad's grip and just looked at her without saying anything. The look on my face was one of despise mixed with triumph. Dad was going to be mad at her for once.

"Nothing's wrong, except your sister has been getting herself into trouble again. I'm here to sort out what really happened." Dad told her lovingly. The look of pride on his face almost made me sick. What was he talking about anyways?

"Oh, I suspected as much," Lily told my dad. "When she was put in Slytherin I just knew…" Here she heaved a great sigh.

I shot both her and my father a look of greatest contempt. I was thoroughly confused and didn't like the turn the day had taken.

"I'll come see you later, honey." My dad told Lily lovingly. I for one thought I would barf if he said it any more sweetly.

"What was that about?" I spat at my dad when Lily had gone away. "I didn't do anything, okay hardly anything, wrong. And why are you being so sweet to the enemy?"

"Come on and I'll explain everything." Dad told me shortly. He led me up the stairs and towards the Owlery.

When we got there he closed the door softly and motioned for me to come to the back corner. My owl, Zandra, perched softly on my shoulder. I was confused as to why we had come up here but I wasn't about to ask.

"I'm waiting for a letter from Hermione." Dad explained. "She, Ron and I are working on another assignment as Aurors. Don't ask about it. I can't tell you." He must have noticed that I was getting ready to ask him just that.

"So, feel like explaining yourself? What has happened since you got to school?" Dad questioned me.

"Well, I was sorted into Gryffindor, got in some minor trouble, found out Dobby was watching my every move, saved Lily's life, got top marks in the school, spent last night in the Hospital Wing, tried out for Quidditch, and found out you were here at school. What about you?" I said smiling pleasantly and hoping he wouldn't try to sort it all out.

Dad stared at me and then laughed. "You're putting me on, right? You, get top marks in the school? That's a good one." He was laughing, and I looked at him impassively. "Wait, you aren't serious? You are serious, aren't you? Wow, I never would have guessed. Here your mother and I thought you were devoid of all things magical and you are the exceptionally gifted one."

I rolled my eyes like it was obvious. "Oh, I forgot. I also found out that I could be the Protector." I added this to my list offhandedly.

"What are you talking about?" My dad asked me confusedly. "What's this Protector nonsense? Are you talking about that crackpot prophesy, the one with the 'Great Evil' that is supposed to descend from the 'hero boy'? I don't think that prophesy was even properly documented in the Department of Mysteries. Nobody believed it was even worth the trouble. It was completely out of the question that the wizarding world would let someone grow that powerful again."

"Oh, whatever then," I knew better then to contradict Dad when he was in this kind of a mood. These moods only came around when he was about to get another Auror assignment from Hermione. He got in a very protective mood and then went off to catch some of the last remnants of the Death Eaters. It was a never ending process.

"There's my letter. You'd better get back to your friends now. I have to go soon." There was no use talking to Dad anymore so I patted Zandra and walked off.

I, getting an idea, didn't leave the Owlery just yet. I wanted to put in a subscription to the _Daily Prophet_, the wizarding newspaper, just to keep up on events. Or that's what I told myself. I think I really wanted to find out what dad's letter said. I snuck back around and watched him. He read the letter over a few times and then set light to it. He turned and walked off not bothering to make sure that it burned properly.

I snuffed it out with a quick spell and dashed to pick it up. I tucked it safely down in my robes where I wouldn't lose it and then sent out a subscription to the _Daily Prophet_ with Zandra.

I looked around and then had another idea. This one would have to wait. I would need to do research on the subject before I tried to pull it off. I glanced around nervously, feeling as if I was being watched, but, seeing no one, I strode quickly out of the Owlery with my broom in hand.

Chapter 14: Stealing At Hogwarts

"What is that?" Spencer asked me suspiciously eying the crumpled and singed parchment in my hand. "It looks old and, well, dirty. Why do you want it?"

"Shut up, I'm trying to read it." I snapped at him. "It's kind of important."

It was a little later that day and we were sitting in the common room, supposed to be doing homework. Celeste and Lauran were discussing how hot Colby was, Spencer was eying me suspiciously and I was attempting to read a letter. I had already finished my homework, the only one to actually do so.

"This is so hard to decipher." I said finally, exasperated. "Why can't they just write in English like normal people?"

That got Celeste's attention and she stopped mid sentence. "Who writes in code? What are you deciphering?"

"Um, nothing," It was too late I already had their interest. "Okay, it's an assignment letter from Hermione to my dad. She and Ron are waiting for him to do something so that they can get to the next stage of the plan or something. I almost have it worked out who they're after this time, but not quite. It's one of Voldemort's supporters, probably one of his most loyal Death Eaters that escaped capture."

"Where did you get that letter? Did your dad give it to you?" Celeste asked me.

"Um, not exactly," I said slightly guiltily. "I found it and thought someone should know what he's up to if he gets himself into trouble, someone trustworthy, like me!"

"Yeah," Lauran said sarcastically, "trustworthy people always steal letters they shouldn't read."

"Uh, okay maybe not the best idea. It's too late now though, right? It's not like I can put the letter back or anything. Anyways I'm going to the library. I have to look something up. Anyone want to come? Colby's not posting Quidditch results until after dinner."

"No thanks. I've got a little Transfiguration left. I better get it done." Spencer told me.

"Count us out," Lauran told me, "I hate the library; Madam Pince is always prying into what I'm looking up, that old batty librarian."

"Okay, suit yourselves. I've got important things to look up anyways. See you at dinner." I told them hurrying up the stairs to the dormitory to put the letter down. I didn't want to carry it around. It would be safer here.

I closed the windows, afraid the letter would blow away, and I tucked the letter into a Defense Against the Dark Arts book. I glanced around nervously before leaving the dormitory. I felt like unfriendly eyes were watching my every move.

I hurried down to the library and began to look for the information I wanted. There was very little on the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, so I began to look through various books about the real downfall of Voldemort. I found what I was looking for in the third book I looked through. It had documented a prophesy made shortly after the downfall of Voldemort by a Sybil Trelawney. It read as follows:

There shall come a time when all seems won and those are lured into false safety. The time will follow when a Great Evil rises and a new Protector be born. A set of twins will come from the hero boy's clan, one pure of heart, the other far from. A reign of terror the Great Evil shall have. There is, however, one way to stop this from ever coming to be. Kill one twin, the Evil One, and let the Protector be. If you choose wrong, Evil shall triumph and a time of horror greater than ever dreamed shall fall. The only hope once the reign has begun is the one least expected. The Protector shall save the world. Judge them not for the Great Evil is the one least likely to seem harmful, while the Protector has the Dark Lord's wand. Do what you see fit, you have been warned, don't ever say you weren't.

The previous was spoken in a pub shortly after the final fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It was not taken seriously because, well, who believes it anyway? The Prophesy was recorded in the Department of Mysteries, however, to follow strict wizarding laws and regulations.

I was excited to see that the Prophesy had been recorded. I hurried down to dinner hoping to get started on my newest project soon. I half expected Spencer to ask what I had been up to, but he didn't. In fact everyone seemed a little shifty during dinner. They seemed to be avoiding telling me something. I ignored this obvious fact as best as possible. But, alas, it was too much for me.

"Okay," I had pretty much lost it by this point, "What aren't you telling me? Something is up and I will figure out what."

"Uh, Celeste this is your call." Spencer said warily, "You're the only one out of range."

I shot him a look before smiling sweetly at Celeste as if to tell her to go on.

"Uh, Riley, don't be mad, er, okay?" Celeste started uncertainly. "Don't shoot the messenger."

I was panicked by now. "What happened? Tell me or I swear…"

"Someone broke into the dormitory." Celeste said hurriedly as if hearing it fast would make it less hard to hear.

"They didn't take my broom, did they?" I asked, wondering where this was going.

"No, they were looking for, and found, a certain letter you weren't supposed to have." Celeste replied quietly.

"Oh…" and here I cursed so badly it made Lauran say my name in a sharp tone of surprise.

"Sorry," I told her, not really meaning it, "But, nobody knew where it was. How did they find it?" I felt, once again, as if I was being watched by a pair of unfriendly eyes.

Spencer spoke in undertones and I had to lean in to hear what he was saying, "That letter was important. We had better find out what happened to it. If it falls into the wrong hands…" He trailed off, and I got the picture, all too clearly.

Cursing under my breath, I sat back and looked around. Someone in this school had the letter from dad. But who could it be? Was it Lily? I hoped it wasn't but I had a sinking feeling as I met her bluish-gray, cold, eyes from across the Great Hall. She smirked at me. I knew, instantly, who had the letter and winced at the thought.

"How did she get it?" I asked no one in particular. "She's not allowed in Gryffindor Tower. And you would have seen her."

I sat quietly, not eating for the rest of dinner. I moved some food around on my plate and listened to the conversation at the table, which I took no part in. I felt, for the billionth time today, as if I was being watched by unfriendly eyes, and not my sister's either.

Chapter 15: That's not Dobby

I saw Colby posting the Quidditch try-out results but didn't bother to go look at them. Spencer, Celeste and Lauran, however, bolted over to see what the sheet said.

Mumbling to myself, I added to the letter I was planning on sending the next morning before class started. We had a less then a week until Halloween. Classes would end early on Friday and then we would have the huge Halloween feast that night. Normally I would be psyched, but right now I just wanted to get out of the trouble I was in.

"You made it," Spencer informed me sitting down next to me and attempting to see what I was writing.

I just made a noise to show I had heard and went on writing. I already knew that I had made the team and didn't much care about anything else right now besides the letter I was attempting to write.

"Aren't you going to ask how we did?" Lauran shot at me reproachfully. "Or do you even care?"

"I was getting to that." I said half-heartedly. "So, how'd my buddies do?"

"I'm in!" Celeste squealed. "Lauran and I are back-up Beaters. It's great, huh?"

"Back-up Beaters! Who beat you out? Why I oughtta-" I started angrily.

"She's only kidding." Lauran cut me off. "We're first string."

I noticed Spencer was pointedly avoiding looking at me. I knew something was wrong. There was no need to ask him. He hadn't made the team.

"I'm sorry Spencer. You were great…" I trailed off.

"Sorry for what? That I made Chaser, you'd better be sorry. I could've beaten you out for Seeker if I'd wanted to." Spencer grinned at me sideways.

"You're a little stinker!" I screamed at him. I smacked him over the head with my letter and then hurried to seal the envelope. It was finally finished. I would send it out in the morning with Zandra.

"Now are you going to tell us what that is, or are we going to have to force it out of you?" Spencer asked teasingly.

"Well, you can't force it out of me, so, I suppose I'll have to tell you…" I paused, "when the reply comes back!"

I ran up to the dormitory to put the letter away, but then thought better of it. I made a separate letter and put it on my bedside table. This time I opened the window and grabbed my invisibility cloak. I had a suspicion what was going on.

I hurried into the bathroom and turned on the light, shutting and locking the door behind me. Then I threw on the invisibility cloak and proceeded out the bathroom door that led into the hall. I circled back into my room and stood, watching.

Sure enough a great black bird soared through the open window and nicked the letter on the bedside table. It was the decoy letter for whoever was taking them.

As the bird soared around the room and out the window, I caught a glimpse of its blood red eyes. They sent shivers down my spine and I was glad when the bird was gone. Now I knew how Lily had gotten the letter. I just hoped she would fall for the decoy letter trick.

As I turned to unlock the bathroom door a thought ran through my head. Lily is having me watched. That wasn't Dobby watching me earlier today. I would have to be more careful from now on.


	6. Chapters 16, 17 & 18

Chapter 16: Love & Quidditch

The day of our first Quidditch practice had arrived. Since it was only two days after the bird incident I hadn't expected anything out of Lily yet. She would act in retaliation to the decoy letter soon enough. I hadn't told anyone about the bird either, it was between my sister and me.

The weather was bright and clear, perfect for Quidditch. I shouldered my broom and walked out onto the field excited to be flying again. I noticed that Spencer avoided Colby as much as possible. He also seemed to like to keep me away from Colby. I wondered why, but I also made a point to talk to Colby more. Just to bug Spencer.

Celeste was watching Colby closely, trying to figure out what he thought of different girls. He eyed her anxiously. I guess she made him nervous or something. I know if she kept watching me like that, I'd be nervous. Lauran cruised around the pitch just excited to be flying again. I joined her and we raced from one end of the pitch to the other.

"Okay everyone, circle up!" Colby called enthusiastically, "Here's what we'll do. Watkins, Smatters, and I will try to score on Wood over in that goal post. Weasley and Weasley will try to hit us with the Bludgers. Potter, you're going for the snitch, and give it a minute's head start, will you? Ready, get in places now, on my whistle"- TWEET "GO!"

I let the snitch go, waited for a few minutes and then soared off to look for it. It wasn't long before I spotted it hovering inches behind Spencer. I dived straight for it. He looked up to see me barreling towards him. His face probably wore the most shocked expression I had seen in my life. I would pay to see it again. He had little time to react how he deemed necessary and dove sharply out of my reach. I saw the snitch go fluttering off in another direction and chased it relentlessly. Colby watched me speed around the goalpost without slowing down a bit. I reached out and nabbed the snitch before I finally stopped moving. Colby looked to his watch.

"Mother of… You took three minutes to track that down Potter. Two of which you didn't move anywhere. That's got to be some kind of record." Colby said breathlessly.

Laughing I turned to see Spencer still looked shocked, "Your face was priceless Spencer. You thought I was after you, didn't you?" I released the snitch still laughing.

"Yeah, what else was I supposed to think? You came shooting at me out of the sky at record speed. I thought you were aiming to knock me off my broom!"

I rose back up to circling height and watched them play for a while. I soon got tired of that and soared around to look for the snitch. I spotted it in thirty seconds twittering around down near the stands. I shot off to get it.

"Potter, you've got your job down," Colby informed me as I sat with the rest of the team in the team's room. "I scheduled practice for Thursday nights at six o'clock. Everyone has to show up. Potter, can I talk to you for a second?" Colby asked as I got up to leave with the others.

"Sure," I said waving goodbye to the other team members, "What about?"

"Well I wanted to know how you got to be so good at Seeker. It's the hardest position for most teams to fill well. You could make a fortune playing after you left school." Colby informed me.

"I dunno, practicing with Celeste and Lauran I guess. And my dad started teaching me before I could talk in complete sentences." I knew this wasn't what he really wanted to ask me, but I figured I'd just wait and see where this was going.

"It must be great to have a dad who teaches you things like that. My dad works all the time and never taught me anything about flying. I think that's why I love it so much. It had nothing to do with him." Colby sounded slightly nervous now.

I grinned at him slyly, "What did you really want to ask me?" We were nearly inside the castle now.

"How did you know that wasn't what I wanted to ask?" He turned slightly pink. "Oh, never mind. I wanted to ask what Celeste Weasley thought of me. She's unique isn't she?"

"Erm, yeah she's one of a kind. Er, but I don't know what she thinks of you, exactly." I figured this had been coming but wasn't sure what to say.

"Oh, okay then. Would you find out for me, please? Erm, I would like to know. Thanks!" Colby walked off without waiting for an answer.

"Hey Seaworth!" I called after Colby. But he was long gone. "Sure I'll ask her." I muttered to myself and set off to go finish any remnants of homework I had left.

Chapter 17: Boating on the Lake

It was finally Halloween and I was ready for the feast that night. But the feast was hours away and I had potions to get to. Hurray, my favorite subject. When I got to the dungeons I heard my sister talking loudly about something. I ignored her until I heard something that made my heart stop.

"Dad is after Moresby. It's not like he'll ever catch Moresby though. Moresby is safe in his hiding place. He's awaiting orders from the head. I'm not sure how long it will be before Dad figures out the truth…" Lily trailed off aware that I was now there.

"Moresby brought down by your father and his two weakling buddies, that's a laugh!" Logan Malfoy was crying, he was laughing so hard.

My eyes met Lily's and she sneered at me. But I also sensed a slight flicker of fear in her eye. When I looked closer it was gone.

"Riley, I assume you've heard about Father's chasing Moresby by now. It's all over the papers." Lily tossed a _Daily Prophet_ at me just as the dungeon door opened.

After sitting in the back of the dungeon I skimmed the front page of the paper. The main story read as follows:

POTTER CHASES MORESBY

The _Daily Prophet _has just received word that Harry Potter, the esteemed Auror, is after no less than the suspected death eater ring-leader Moresby. Mrs. Olivia Potter was unavailable for comment at the time due to a garden show she was attending. Potter's daughters currently attend Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry as first year students. Head of Wizard security, Percy Weasley, said, "The girls are perfectly safe where they are. I wish Harry were just as safe."

The article continued but I didn't feel like reading it at the moment. Passing the paper to Spencer I readied myself for a long potions class. I didn't need to sit through a long potions class though because fairly soon Professor Delacour stuck her head in the door looking for me.

"Professor, I need the Potter girls for awhile. If you'd kindly let them come with me…" My heart sunk realizing she wanted Lily too. This was not going to be pretty.

"Your mother needs to speak with you both. She is in my office. The head master thought this was an easier issue for me to handle. He just doesn't like to get involved with the students. Go right on in, please." Professor Delacour halted in front of a door and motioned for us to go inside. Lily opened the door, slamming me in the face in the process.

"Sorry," She said with a sweet little smile. I realized she was going to be all sweet in front of mother. I had better be careful or I could find myself in a difficult situation to get out of.

"Oh, Lily, I've missed you so much!" my mother called out as Lily entered the room. Mother pulled her into a giant hug and kissed her on top of her head. Lily pecked her on the cheek. I mimed vomiting. "Riley, you haven't been in any trouble lately?" Mother raised her eyebrows at me. I am happy to report I received no hug. In fact, mother didn't look too happy to see me.

Mother's question was rhetorical because she went on talking to Lily about how much she missed having her 'sweet ickle girl' around. I found I was ready to barf.

"Okay, honey, I don't know if you've heard. Daddy is out on another case. I wanted you to hear this from me and not some twisted version of school gossip. He is perfectly fine and will remain so. There is nothing to worry about. He is, er, just doing his routine job. You are in no danger. Percy wanted me to tell you all that 'the safest place for you right now is Hogwarts'. Your father was never directly attacked at Hogwarts. It is perfectly safe. Moresby can't get to you. Daddy says to tell you he loves you, Lily." From mother's speech you wouldn't be able to know that Olivia and Harry Potter had two kids. Heck, it was if I didn't exist.

I went along with whatever Mother said later. I knew the routine, nod a lot. I didn't listen to a word she said about my staying out of trouble. I kept playing one sentence over and over in my head. 'Daddy says to tell you he loves you, Lily.' It was obvious to anyone I wasn't my parent's favorite child, but that my own father didn't love me, that was harsh.

I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I left the room. I ran out of the room and got as far away from Lily as possible. If I saw her I'd probably strangle her with my bare hands. I ran without knowing where to go. Soon I found myself at the entrance to the North tower, the tallest one Hogwarts has. I opened the door and ran up the stairs two at a time.

"Riley, how'd you know we were up here?" Spencer asked me quietly. We were in Astronomy which was today on the North Tower. I had had no idea as I ran up those stairs.

"I didn't," I whispered harshly back. I was in a temper and didn't want to be bothered. I pretended to be utterly interested in what the Professor was saying and ignored all further attempts at any kind of conversation.

"Come on. We'll go do something fun!" I said to Spencer, Celeste and Lauran after lunch was over. Afternoon classes had been canceled since it was Halloween.

"Like what? I don't feel like flying and you seem pretty eager to get out of the castle." Spencer shot at me.

"Yeah, well I thought we'd go boating on the lake." I was eager to get out of the castle. Mother had hurt me and I only knew one way to get back at her, make trouble. If my parents had loved me as much as they loved Lily I never would have made any trouble. I would have been content to do what they wanted me to, but they didn't love me as much as Lily, or, apparently, at all.

"Boating?" Celeste asked, grinning. "Are you and I thinking the same thing then? Those boats from the first night here have to be somewhere."

"Exactly, we'll 'borrow' them and go for a little spin. What do you say guys?" I grinned from ear to ear. I was back in my element, making mischief.

"Erm, Sure, I guess so," Spencer said indecisively.

"Duh" was all Lauran said.

So off we went to look for the boats. Okay, I did no looking. I knew exactly where to go. The funny thing was I had been terrified that first night, yet I still remembered where to go. With a quick look up the hall for teachers I opened the door to the underground docking place. The boats were still sitting in their places.

"Okay, I want my own boat. You three decide what you want to do, quickly. I don't like the way that door squeaked, or the way this cavern echoes." I whispered urgently.

"Wait, you can't row that thing by yourself." Lauran pointed out, "Those oars weigh a ton."

"I know I can't lift one. But I can magic it into rowing me. I've already got the hang of that. I had plenty of practice while spooking Lily out last summer. Now hurry up!"

We each got in separate boats and I started rowing towards the ivy hanging over the cave entrance. We got closer to the ivy and I ducked down to avoid getting hit in the face by it. Soon I was cruising along open lake.

"Race you to the other side of the lake!" I yelled to Spencer. "There's no way you can beat me!"

I didn't wait for an answer before making the boat row its self faster. I didn't make it go as fast as possible because I wanted to surprise Spencer just when he thought he could win. He went speeding past me and was almost to the other side of the lake when I gunned my boat and passed him up like he was standing still. No sooner had I beaten him than…

"Miss Potter, Mr. Woods, Miss Weasley, and Miss Weasley what do you four think you are doing!" A voice screamed at us from the inside of the cave opening. A lone boat came slowly under the ivy and the figure inside sat up so we could see who it was. It was Professor Delacour. We were busted.

"I am not sure what you thought you were doing, but you know better than to do that, a week worth of detention for you all. Now hurry up and get to the feast before I change my mind and punish you harder!" We were in Professor Delacour's office and she had just finished yelling at us.

"Riley, I want to talk with you for a minute, don't go anywhere." She added as I started out the door. I sat back down.

She looked tired and upset. I was wondering if she wanted to talk about the scene between my mother, sister, and I that afternoon. It was going to be an interesting conversation.

"You promised your mother this afternoon that you wouldn't get in trouble. Why did you break your word? Was it because she never told you your father said he loved you? Was it because she's hurt you more than she could ever know? Riley, I know what it's like to think that your parents don't love you, but I'm sure they do." Professor Delacour looked at me with her eyebrows raised.

"You don't know my parents." I responded quietly.

"Oh, contraire I do know your parents. They are good friends of mine, actually. I know how much they complain about you getting into trouble. They tease about how they were so glad to send you off to Hogwarts. At the train they looked relieved to see you going because they were afraid you never would have gone." Professor Delacour said smiling at me.

"They don't love me as much as Lily. Dad was mad at me for being in Slytherin when Lily lied to him and said I was. When he found out that she was in Slytherin he didn't care. I don't matter to them and would like to keep it that way. They only pay attention to me when I'm in trouble. Neither Mum nor Dad cared that I am the top of our year or that the Prophesy could be happening right under their noses. My family is dysfunctional and I intend to leave it alone. My sister is my greatest enemy and my parents don't care that Lily could destroy the world if she wanted to. I feel more at home here than I ever could at home. Now, if you don't mind Professor, I am going to go eat. Please don't send my mother an owl; I don't want to bother her with my juvenile delinquency right now. Oh, and I think I just realized why my father is gone most of the time. He can't stand having his only family being as dysfunctional as ours is. Happy Halloween" I strode out the door without looking back.

I went to the feast and hardly ate anything. I said less than I ate and was one of the first up to bed. That didn't mean I was the first asleep. In fact, I wandered around the school with my invisibility cloak on until nearly dawn and then went to bed, only to be roused suddenly two hours later.

Chapter 18: Detention

You will serve your detentions starting tonight at 7 o'clock. Come to the Entrance Hall at that time.

Fleur Delacour

Deputy Headmistress

Head of Gryffindor House

"Oh, you too?" Spencer asked eying the paper in my hand, "Are your detentions in the Entrance Hall at 7 o'clock?"

"Yeah, that when yours are?" I asked tiredly. Celeste had woken me up at 8 o'clock for a special Quidditch practice. I had gotten two hours of sleep and was ready to fall asleep in the waffle stack in front of me.

"Yeah, Celeste's and Lauran's are starting tonight too. You look a little tired. Are you okay? You didn't eat anything this morning and hardly anything last night." Spencer sounded worried.

"Huh, oh, right, it's breakfast. Sorry I'm a little out of it. I only got two hours of sleep. And tonight I'll only get a couple because of detention. Thankfully Colby didn't plan any Quidditch practice today." I said forgetting once again about eating. It didn't matter since I didn't think I could lift the food to my face.

"Oh, Riley," called the fake sweet voice of Lily. "Riley, I do hope that mother only forgot to say Dad says he loves you. I'm sure he really does, not." Lily laughed evilly.

"That's it." I snarled, pulling my wand out of my robes. "She's getting it this time. I'll kill that little…" Spencer had pinned me to the bench but I kicked him, hard in the shin.

A pure look of terror clouded Lily's face as she saw how mad I was, but she quickly recovered. Lily started laughing once she realized she had found a raw nerve. But I stopped with my wand raised when her evil looking bird flew in with something that looked exactly like mother's cookies. Instead of cursing her like I sorely wanted to I found myself nearly crying. I turned and stomped out of the Great Hall, my friends running to catch up with me.

I didn't stop walking until I had reached the Owlry. Looking up I saw Zandra high in the rafters. My heart sank as she flew down to me immediately. That meant mother hadn't made me cookies. She really didn't care about me. I absently stroked Zandra and sat looking out the window. A minute later my friends ran in trying to catch their breath.

"Can you walk any faster?" Celeste said angrily. "What was that about? What'd she say that made you lose it like that in front of all those teachers? You're lucky you didn't do anything to her or you would have been expelled!"

I didn't say anything. I just looked out the window. I had never cried because of the mean things Lily and my parents had said about me and I wasn't about to now. All the anger towards them was still pent up inside of me like it had been my entire life. I needed to find some kind of vent or I'd explode. I was afraid to open my mouth in case it all tumbled out. I didn't want my friends to get dragged into my dysfunctional family's problems.

Spencer sat down beside me. He sighed and said, "It isn't good to keep that bottled up for too long. You're going to explode if you're not careful. And I'd hate to be the person to make you mad so you did." He looked at me carefully. "Is this about what I think it's about?" he asked finally.

"If you think it's about my dysfunctional family, then yes. I'm ready for detention. Can we go now?" I asked, fishing for another subject, anything really. But it was no use.

"You've got to do _**something** _about that anger, Riley. Let's go out for a quick fly. That always makes you feel better." Celeste suggested. She looked worried.

"Fine, I'll go flying with you. But I'm not saying I'm going to have any fun. You just want to impress Colby." I teased.

"Er, well, I guess if he is impressed then it won't be a bad thing," But she turned scarlet anyways.

So we went for a fly. It was a long fly and we didn't go back inside until dinner. Then it was off to detention. I wondered what we would have to do.

"Once my dad had to do lines," I said.

"That's not so bad," Lauran replied.

"It is when you're writing them in your own blood." I informed her, "It was under that Umbridge lady. He's still got the scars permanently engraved on the back of his hand."

"That's lovely." Lauran said looking completely disturbed and holding her right hand as if to not let anyone cut it.

"Ah, now everyone is here," The old creaky voice of the caretaker, Angus Filthweiler made my hair stand on end.

"Might I ask what we're doing for detention?" a blond Hufflepuff third year asked. I had seen her but didn't know her name.

"You might, but I'm not going to tell you. Ask the person in charge of your detentions, Professor Dippot. I'm only taking you to him." Angus Filthweiler replied.

"Oh, that's not good." I muttered to myself.

We left the Entrance Hall and walked towards the Forbidden Forest. I thought I may know where we were going. I hoped I was wrong.

"Here's Professor Dippot, enjoy your journey into the Forbidden Forest!" And Filthweiler laughed an evil laugh.

"Oh, crap! We're going into the Forbidden Forest. With Professor Dippot, that can't be safe. He's not the brightest crayon in the box, is he?" I hissed at Celeste.

"Uh, no, he's definitely not. You remember when he…" Celeste trailed off.

"Come on students. You are I trouble, but this is perfectly safe. We wouldn't put you in any harm. Follow me, and stay close behind."

"Oh, like I'd wander off into the forest alone," said the blond irreverently. I snorted with laughter and she grinned at me.

Professor Dippot pretended not to hear her and strode quickly off into the forest. We could do nothing but follow him, wondering exactly what we were going to do.

"So, you're Riley Potter, right?" I looked to see the blond third year walking beside me.

"Yeah, you're point being? I got in trouble, not surprising for me. Now I'm walking through the woods, doing God knows what, and talking to someone I don't know. Who are you?" I shot right back.

"Olivia Johnson, I'm in Hufflepuff, but I think you know my little sister Julia, she's a first year Gryffindor."

"Oh, yeah, I know Julia. So why are you in Detention?" I asked her wondering if she had said something cheeky in class.

"Uh, 'mouthing off' is the term they used. Actually I was just letting Professor Delacour know that she had said something wrong, and I was accused of mouthing off and being cheeky. What about you and your friend over there?" She asked nodding to Spencer.

"Well, you could call it hijacking. We took those boats; you know the ones you take across the lake the first day of your first year. Yeah, well Professor Delacour didn't think it was too funny. We've got a week of Detention."

"Nice. I never thought to try that before. You are a master-mind. Well, I've got Detention all week too. I got in trouble for dropping stink pellets on some unsuspecting first-year Slytherins. That got me four days. You know, I've had Detention too many times to count, and we've never come into the Forbidden Forest before. This is strange. I wonder what we're doing." Olivia walked up ahead to ask Professor Dippot just that.

"Who's that?" Spencer asked me catching up to me finally.

"Olivia Johnson, you know Julia, it's her older sister. You know what? She said she's had Detention a lot but they've never gone into the Forest before. Do you think something is wrong?" I asked Spencer, worried.

"Maybe, probably nothing big though. We're not fully trained or anything. Most of us are first years."

"Okay, here's what's happening." Professor Dippot started, "Something has been killing off the thestrals and the unicorns. We have to find out what. We will split into four groups of five. I'll send each group down a different path. Red sparks mean you're in danger, gold mean you've found something. Ready, get in your groups and get going."

"Oh, shoot. That's comforting. 'Something has been killing off the thestrals and the unicorns.' Yeah, I feel safe." Lauran muttered under her breath. I stepped closer to Spencer.

"Okay firsties, I've been asked to come with you four. That will make five, right, or do you not know how to count yet?" Olivia said cheerily.

"Okay, what path do we take?" I asked.

"Uh, that one," Olivia replied pointing down the darkest looking path. "Wands out, d'you reckon?"

"Definitely," I replied, "Lumos, hey we'll need light, right?"

"You're a smart one. Let's go, you ready cutie?" Olivia asked Spencer, who was looking uncomfortable.

"Yeah, it's just, well, what are we getting ourselves into? It could be anything." Spencer said but started down the path anyway. I had to admit, Olivia was right about him being cute, not that I liked my best friend or anything.

"He's quite a catch, Riley. I'd hold on to that one if I were you." Olivia said slyly.

"Hold on to who?" I asked grinning. I knew what she was talking about, "Oh, you mean Wood over there. Yeah, I'm not letting my best friend find a new friend so he can ditch me. But, honestly, I couldn't stand to go out with him."

"You never know, I hear you two are tight, though. I think Julia used the term inseparable." Olivia walked away laughing. Rolling my eyes I ran to catch up with Spencer.

We walked along for what seemed like ages until finally we all agreed to a rest. I was tired, but what I was about to see would give me energy.

"Oh, gross, what's that?" I asked pointing at some dark goop on the ground. "That's just nasty, that is." There was a trail of the goop leading off the path we had been following.

Olivia had blanched at the sight. "That's a mixture of Thestral and unicorn blood. It looks fairly new too. The Thestrals seem pretty protective of the unicorns these days. That usually means something isn't quite right."

"Uh, do we have to follow the goop?" Lauran asked, looking as if anything would be better than that.

"That's the general idea." Olivia replied. "Now which of you is the best at curses and the lot?"

"Riley is," came a chorus of voices.

"Hey, I'd like to know what it is you're getting me into, before you volunteer for me!" I exclaimed nervously.

"You and I will go first into the wooded area." Olivia explained, "Okay, wands out. Ready, go."

We left the path and I followed the goop along the forest floor. There seemed to be more and more as we went along. I knew something was wrong. Nothing should bleed that much unless it's dead or dying.

"There's the Thestral," I whispered pointing. The silvery blood keeps going though. So the unicorn may still be alive, but it's lost too much blood. It'll be dead soon."

"Wait, you can see Thestrals. Who'd you see die?" Olivia asked suspiciously.

"Um, do you want a list, or what?" I replied quietly, "We've got to move, something's wrong."

I led the way because Olivia didn't seem to want to move any farther. I think she was afraid of stepping in Thestral. I skirted the corpse and followed the unicorn's blood farther into the forest. What I saw next was so horrible I didn't know what to do. I froze and the others nearly ran into me.

"Run, now." I hissed at Spencer who had pushed his way up next to me to look at what I could see.

"Come on Riley," He replied grabbing my arm and trying to yank me away.

"Go, I'll be right there." I whispered urgently back, there was no arguing with my voice this time. He left me and pushed the others back.

The thing moved. I looked closer. It was drinking the unicorn's blood. I was so grossed out but I knew I had to watch, I needed to understand something. Then the thing looked up. My eyes met its bluish-gray, cold ones. I knew what was happening instantly.

"Lily, what are you doing," I asked the thing, who was, in fact my sister. "You know what that does don't you?"

"Of course, dearest sister, I am now cursed. But we both know I already was. Now, might I ask what you are doing here?" Lily replied icily.

"Well, I guess I'm here to put an end to your stupidity," I said calmly pointing my wand up in the air. Lily looked panicked. All I did was shoot a few sparks into the air, a mixture of gold and red.

Lily advanced on me, pulling her hood down and exposing her face, which was dripping with silvery liquid. I felt panicked though outwardly I looked calm. I threw my wand down. No matter how much I hated my sister, I refused to harm her. However a root did spring out of the ground, tripping her up. I knew that I had done it but Lily didn't.

I reached out my hand when I heard people coming. My wand jumped into it and there was a blinding flash of light. I was thrown backwards and flipped over several times before stopping, face down yards behind where I had started. I slowly lifted my head and saw, to my disbelief, that Lily had disappeared. I got up quickly and looked around the small clearing, but there was no sign of her.

"Miss Potter, are you okay?" a voice asked from behind me, it was Professor Dippot.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The unicorn's right there," I said quietly, pointing at the beautiful slain animal on the ground.

"I think you've had enough Detention for that one little mischievous deed, don't you?" Professor Dippot said as he bent to examine the unicorn.

"Yeah, I've had plenty." I said sinking onto the ground at the base of a tree, "Does that mean I'm out of it for the rest of the week?"

"I'll have to check with Professor Delacour, but I should say so. You look as if you've been through an ordeal. Now, tell me exactly what happened."

I told him everything except the fact that Lily had been under the cloak, making it appear as if I had no earthly idea who it was. Then I went back to the castle and went to bed, not talking to anyone. Celeste and Lauran tried to ignore the whole event, but Spencer complimented me on my brave stubbornness.

"A bit thick-headed, wasn't it? Did you think you could take that thing?" He asked, him being the only other one who had seen Lily.

"Oh, shut up Spencer." Celeste said angrily, "She's had enough, all right. Come on Riley, let's get to bed."


	7. Chapters19, 20, & 21

Chapter 19: The First Quidditch Match

It was the morning of the first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. The stands were packed with fans of both teams. We sat in the locker room waiting for a last minute pep talk. The team was in various states of nervousness.

"Okay, team let's get out there and have some fun. Fly like you've never flown before." Colby started.

"Well, that would be a disaster." I cut in.

"What do you mean?" Colby asked sharply.

"Well if you've never flown before, it's got to be your first time on a broom. And I wasn't too brilliant of a flyer when I first mounted a broom. What about you?" I replied looking like it was obvious.

"What? Oh, right. Fine, fly better than you've ever flown before. Is that better, Potter?" Colby said in a mock angry voice.

"It was much better, Seaworth." I replied in a business like tone. "We are all very proud of your change towards correct wording."

Rolling his eyes, Colby turned back to the rest of the team. "Okay, fly like you do at most practices, and we're good to go. Is everyone ready? Okay, let's do this! And, Potter, catch the snitch slowly, okay. Don't get over excited, we do want some points."

"Okay, okay, I guess I can do that." I replied, rolling my eyes. "Let's just go fly, alright?" And I led the way towards the door, red Quidditch robes billowing behind me. I stepped back to let Colby go onto the pitch first.

We entered the pitch to loud shouts of support, and a few loud boos from the Slytherins. But, hey, you can't win them all. Colby shook hands with the other Capitan, Desiree Jones. Then Madam Wingston blew her whistle and we were off. I tailed the other Seeker. He wasn't built like most Seekers though. He was a big and burly 6th year with wide shoulders. Most Seekers are small, light, and able to change directions in the blink of an eye. Rather than look for the snitch I decided to tail him, after all Colby said to wait awhile before catching the snitch.

"GRYFFINDOR'S NEW CHASER, SPENCER WOOD, TAKES POSSESION OF THE QUAFFLE. HE PASSES TO ANGIE WATKINS WHO PASSES TO KATHLEEN SMATTERS, SMATTERS GOES FOR THE GOAL, SHE SHOOTS, AND SHE SCORES! 10-0 GRYFFINDOR!" A Gryffindor 5th year was commentating the match. "AND NOW HUFFLEPUFF CHASER ERIC KINGSLY HAS THE QUAFFLE. HE PASSES TO JOHNSON WHO PASSES TO KNIGHT. KNIGHT PASSES BACK TO KINGSLY, OHH NICE BLUDGER BY GRYFFINDOR FIRST YEAR, LAURAN WEASLEY, OR IS IT CELESTE WEASLEY, OH WELL ONE OF THEM ANYWAY." And so the match continued.

I tailed the other Seeker. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed because he kept forgetting what he was doing. He'd stop and start to watch the game below then turn to look at the stands, finally he'd remember where he was and what he was supposed to be doing and go zooming off in search of the snitch but lose interest again and make anther full circle. Like I said, He's not the sharpest tool in the shed. I listened to the commentary and waited until Gryffindor was up by 40 points. Then I started to look for the snitch, keeping an eye on the other Seeker.

I spotted the snitch in less than a minute near the ground by the Hufflepuff goalposts. I didn't think at all but just dove for the snitch. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. It was the Hufflepuff Seeker, I guess he wasn't as dull as he seemed. He dove, but was way too far behind me to be much of a threat yet. I could go faster and also had a head start. I dove almost straight down, narrowly avoiding the Hufflepuff Keeper. I was feet from the snitch, now inches; I reached out my hand, and nabbed the snitch. I pulled quickly out of my dive centimeters above the ground. Gryffindor had won the match!

I dismounted my broom to loud applause. Six red figures hit the ground around me and I found myself in a pile of happy Gryffindor Quidditch players.

"Nice dive Potter! You really pulled it off."

"Wow, I wish I could fly like that!"

The praise hadn't stopped since the end of the match. I was the star of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Go figure. I was the Seeker, the only team member who could end a game.

"Hey, Potter, when did you start looking for the snitch?" Colby asked me. We were eating dinner in the Great Hall. The whole Quidditch team was in the center of the table.

"Um, let's see. Less than a minute before I caught it. I thought that other Seeker must be daft. There was one time it fluttered around the Gryffindor goalposts that I was sure he couldn't miss. But that was only a few minutes into the game. You said to wait until we had scored some." I replied. Only a few people around me heard though. The whole school was buzzing about the match.

"Nice job, Riley. You flew great. I only wish you were in Hufflepuff." Olivia said as she walked out of the Great Hall. "Hey, I haven't seen you in Detention lately. You were starting to disappoint me. But then I saw you fly. It's amazing!"

"Yeah, well, I do try." I replied, "I'm scheduled to make some trouble around Christmas, you should watch out."

"I'll keep that in mind," Olivia said laughingly as she walked away. "Oh, and Potter, watch your back. That sister of yours is giving you the evil eye."

Lily didn't fancy me being the center of attention when she wasn't. She's very egotistical… and just plain doesn't like me. Oh, well you can't win them all.

Chapter 20: Ball Plans

It was almost Christmas. I decided not to go home for the holidays. Celeste and Lauran couldn't go home because their brother, Greg, was very sick. Spencer couldn't go home because his parents were off at his dad's Quidditch training in the USA. I just didn't want to go home.

"What's that got to do with anything? Sure we're first years, but I think we're old enough to go to a ball!" Julia Johnson complained to Professor Delacour. They were holding a Christmas Ball the day before the train took everyone home for the 2nd years and up.

"It wasn't my decision; I wanted to let you go Miss Johnson. Don't complain to me. I know why they aren't letting you go, though. A few of the first years," she looked pointedly at me in the back of the room, "have a habit of leading other first years," here she looked at Celeste, Lauran, and Spencer, "astray. There have been a few disciplinary problems this year with your fellow first years."

I raised my hand, "So, basically, these, ah shall we say, juvenile delinquents, have ruined it for the rest of us. That's not fair. And, if you meant me to be a 'ring leader' delinquent, I apologize for ruining, not only my, but my peer's chance of going to this Ball."

The class laughed. I had gotten into trouble on several occasions, but was still pretty much liked on the whole. And, it was true, that I was somewhat of a 'ring leader' because I frequently dragged my friends into trouble with me.

"No, I was not hinting in any way that you are a 'ring leader' delinquent, Miss Potter," I detected a hint of sarcasm in Professor Delacour's voice, "However, there are some of you that may cause trouble at a large school event like this. Especially siblings, who, heaven forbid, do not like each other."

"Ah, it's such a pity that kind of people exist. The world would be a much better place if everyone got along, wouldn't it Professor?" My voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Anyway, the Ball will be held this Friday. First years will be permitted to go if asked by an upperclassman. I expect some of you to try and sneak into the Ball, but please be on your best behavior. I assure you there is no point in trying to sneak into the Ball because you will not succeed. Please don't pick Friday night to go gallivanting around the school in your pajamas, or anything as ridiculous."

"Um, I don't know about you, but how do they think that they can keep all the first years out of that Ball? I'm going even if you're too chicken." I said quietly at dinner on Wednesday night.

"Riley, I really don't think that it's the best idea. The place will be crawling with teachers. We could get in serious trouble." Spencer pointed out the obvious.

"We won't get in trouble if we don't get caught. Anyways, Celeste is going. We can't leave her all alone." I grinned mischievously.

"What do you mean I'm going? Why would I go? Riley is there something you're not telling me?" Celeste demanded.

I took my jolly good time answering. I cherished every second of it too. "Well a certain person, who shall remain nameless," here I gave a loud cough that sounded suspiciously like 'Seaworth', "pardon my cough please, has asked me my thoughts on taking another someone to the Ball. He/she was afraid of how she/he may react, mainly that she/he'd outright refuse to go with him/her, this person being very outspoken."

"Wait, Colby Seaworth is going to ask me to the Ball. Yeah, right. Look at all the pretty girls over there flirting with him. Why would he ask me?" Celeste said disbelievingly.

"Well, not that it is necessarily Seaworth, but I should think it's because of your, ah, good-tempered nature and non-hardheadedness." I said sarcastically, "And, you aren't supposed to know, that is if you guessed right, so you better start practicing looking surprised because here he comes."

"Um, er, Celeste, erm, dyouwantagototheballwithme?" Colby said very quickly. I am assuming that he asked her to the Ball but I'm not entirely sure.

"Uh, run by me what you said one more time. Oh, and a bit slower please." Celeste said, trying not to laugh.

"Oh, sorry," Colby Seaworth was, by this time, almost crimson from blushing, "I said Do… you… want… to… go… to… the… Ball… with… me…" He seemed determined not to mess up this time.

"Um, sure, that'd be great. I'm sure it'll be fun." Celeste said, turning red from all the blood rushing to her cheeks, or maybe it was from lack of oxygen from trying not to laugh. I, however, was rolling with laughter on the ground. Colby could be such a nerd when he was nervous.

"That was the funniest thing I've ever heard," I said gasping for breath. "Way to go Celeste, we're 11 and you're already going to a Ball with a guy. Looks like you've got it made."

"Aw, crap, I don't have dress robes. What'll I wear? What'll I do? Riley, I need help! Don't just sit there, HELP ME!" Celeste entered full on panic mode.

"CELESTE, CALM DOWN," Lauran ordered, "listen, you don't have dress robes, yet. We'll get you some, and I need some too. I can't let you go by yourself; Riley looks as if we're going after all."

"Um, you aren't going by yourself either Lauran. Um, that guy, you know the friend of Colby's um, oh yeah, Dean Kingston, he's going to ask you." I said guiltily.

"What, you mean, the hot one? Riley, don't be stupid! How could you joke about…"

"Hey, Lauran, would you go to the Ball with me?" Dean Kingston called down the table.

"Okay," came Lauran's high pitched answer.

"Cool, see you later!"

"I told you. Anyway, it looks like I'm going to be flying solo on this one, since Spencer's a chicken!" I shot at him.

"Uh, no, I'm not letting you go alone." Spencer jumped at this last remark. "I'm no chicken!"

"Good, one thing at a time now. Celeste, Lauran, you need dress robes. I know just where to get them too."

"What about you?" Lauran said confusedly, "Don't you need dress robes?"

"I guess I probably should. I had some old ones of Mum's, but they were ugly, so I, um, _disposed_ of them. They took a trip through a mud puddle before I left." I said grinning.

Chapter 21: Dresses & Panic Attacks

"What color of dress robes do you want?" Lauran asked Celeste excitedly after dinner that Wednesday.

"Um, lavender, no, no, that deep purple color, those right there!" Celeste was having trouble making up her mind.

"I'm going for the light blue ones," Lauran said finally, refusing to look at any more robes for herself, "What about you Riley?"

"I'm not going to tell you." I said grinning sheepishly, "Though I was thinking about those lime green ones."

"No, you're not. You wouldn't," Celeste trailed off. "If you _did _wear ones that color, I'd never be seen with you again."

"Don't worry, I'm getting these ones," I pointed to the prettiest robes on the page, an emerald green color.

"Oh, I guess I can be seen with you then." Celeste said, "Hmm, I'm going to get these ones, the pale lavender color."

"Nice choice. Now fork over the money, I can't buy them all you know. That's one Robin's Egg Blue pair, one Lavender Mist pair, and one Emerald pair." I said, filling in the order form.

"Okay Zandra, fly like the wind, I need a new pair of dress robes." I said as I let my owl go out the Owlery window. "There, the order's been placed, no more changing your minds."

Friday came all too soon. Classes stopped at noon so everyone could pack and get ready for the Ball that evening. Our dress robes had gotten there early that morning. Celeste had been dying to try them on all day.

"Look Lauran, do they look okay on me? It's not too late to alter them." If Celeste sounded anxious then Lauran sounded hysterical.

"Yes, you look pretty. What about me, do I look decent in this? I'll be satisfied with decent as far as looks go."

"Would you two shut up?" I said coming out of the bathroom, having just changed into my robes. "You both look stunning. There I said it, now shut up and think of something else to talk about."

"Riley, just wait until Spencer sees you in that! You look…" Lauran trailed off.

"She's right you know. That emerald is definitely your color!" Celeste turned away from the mirror to get a better view of my robes. "I wish I looked as good."

"Oh, please, you look so much better than I ever will. Now, are you two going to practice dancing at all? Those robes are a little bit different than party dresses." I pointed out.

"Oh, shoot, I can't move that fast. I won't be able to dance properly with Colby," Celeste had now entered the hysterics stage.

"You, my robes are fuller than yours are, I'll trip over Dean's feet! I'm a total klutz already." Lauran was worse than Celeste.

"You both worry too much, calm down." I rolled my eyes as the comical scene unfurled.

"Don't step on…"

"Ow, gerrof me!"

"You put your foot on mine one more time…"

Celeste and Lauran ended up in a muddled heap on the floor. Their limbs were intertwined with each other and they looked quite rumpled. Neither was a particularly great dancer.

"Here," I said helping them off the floor, "you have to let your date lead. Otherwise you'll make a fool of yourself."

"Oh, if you're so great at it then you dance with me." Celeste said she wasn't in the best mood, so I decided not to argue.

"Ok, I'll lead though." Celeste and I danced around the room without tripping. I was a bad dancer, but I knew you couldn't both lead. I tried that one time at a school dance, it wasn't pretty.

"C'mon, it's time to go. You don't want to be late." I pushed them out the door and they started down the stairs slowly.

_**We were going to the Ball!**_


	8. Chapters 22, 23 & 24

Chapter 22: Blood, Sweat, & Nightmares

"Wow, Riley! You look…" Spencer trailed off. I was the center of attention in the Common Room and I hated it. He did look pretty decent in his blue robes, though.

"Shut up, I don't look any different than usual." I told him, then softer I said, "It's not my night, say something about Celeste and Lauran, something nice mind you."

"Celeste, those robes make you look skinnier, and yours too Lauran. OW, WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?" I had smacked Spencer up the backside of his head with a resolute crack.

"Not the right thing to say. Say it again and I'll smack you harder." I glared at him, my eye twitching; sometimes he could be so insensitive.

"Not that you're fat or anything." Spencer added quickly. Lauran actually seemed happy that he had noticed she looked skinnier. Celeste looked ecstatic.

"Thanks," Celeste said before turning to Colby, "Ready to go?"

"I've been ready since you said you'd go with me." Colby said turning crimson. He placed a corsage onto Celeste's wrist.

"Here Lauran," Dean slipped a corsage on her wrist too. "Let's go. I want to dance every song with you."

"Riley?" Spencer asked as we followed them along the passageway, "Do I have to say something sappy to you?"

Laughing I said, "It wouldn't hurt. But don't, the moment is ruined. Oh, shoot, follow me." I pulled him out the front doors and down the stairs around to where they had built a huge porch off of the Great Hall. We went up the stairs and into the Ball. It was too simple. Circling around we met Celeste, Lauran, Colby, and Dean as they came into the Ball. They said goodbye and hurried off to dance.

"Uh, Riley, can I tell you something?" Spencer asked grabbing my hand and pulling me back onto the porch.

"Sure, but then let's dance." I answered, wondering what he was going to tell me.

"I got asked to this Ball by a third year. I figured I should tell you that, even though I turned her down." He looked relieved to have told me.

"Spencer, I got asked by tons of guys. It's no big deal. I only wish the one I wanted to ask me had." I replied coolly.

"Who did you want to ask you? And, what, exactly, is your definition of 'tons'?" Spencer looked puzzled.

"Well, you know there are about ten or so first years. I was asked by at least twice that number of older guys than the number of first years here. And, as for who I wanted to ask me, turns out I came with him anyway," I smiled and grabbed his hand yanking him into the crowd of dancers. Lily stood among them, in blood red robes.

"You know, you're the only one who I wanted to come with too." Spencer told me quietly. We were out on the porch, alone, well not technically since we were together.

"Really," I was having trouble looking Spencer in the face, my insides were all jittery and I felt nervous.

"Yeah, you're my best friend and I love to spend time with you. It's more fun than just being with a bunch of guys." My stomach sank. I felt crushed.

"Oh, okay," was all I said back. I felt a tear run down my face. "Hey, Spencer, I don't feel too great. Let's go back to the Common Room, okay?" I wanted to get away from him, fast.

"What's wrong? Are you sick?" Spencer sounded concerned. I couldn't look at him.

"You could say that…" I trailed off. My insides were burning; I was going to burst if I didn't cry soon.

He took my chin and made me look at him. "You're crying. What's wrong? What did I do this time?" He wrapped his arms around me. I buried my face in his robes.

"Nothing, I'm the stupid one." I pulled away and started pacing, "I thought you wanted to come to the Ball with me because you liked me, not because I was you friend. I'm stupid, and I'm going upstairs."

"No, you're not going anywhere." He grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him. "I did come with you because I liked you, and not just as a friend either. Riley, I really like you." His fingers laced with mine and we stood at the edge of the porch looking out over the grounds.

He leaned in. I was going to kiss him in ten seconds, nine, eight, seven, six, five… I saw something over his shoulder, something big and black with blood red eyes.

"Spencer, get down!" I shoved him and he half dove half fell over on the ground. As for me, well if you're squeamish don't read what happened next. Just skip to Chapter 23 and read from there.

I was knocked full force backwards and off the porch. It's a good thing my robes were dark green. I landed bruised, but not broken at the bottom. Spencer hung over the railing and yelled to see if I was okay.

Before I could answer the thing made another swipe at me. This time it landed and its talons connected with my face. It made a few swipes and I felt the pain in the center of my forehead. Blood ran down my face and I passed out of consciousness, only to awake a second later to see Spencer standing over me.

"Get help, she's crazy!" I gasped before sliding out of consciousness indefinitely.

Chapter 23: The Scar

Welcome back squeamish people! I opened my eyes and sat for a minute just thinking about how much my head hurt. And, not to exaggerate or anything but it felt pretty bloody bad! Reaching up I felt a large bandage covering my head. I suddenly remembered what had happened and sat bolt upright.

It was pitch black in the hospital wing and I was completely alone. I really wanted to go back to my own bed in the dormitory. I was very tired even though I had just been out cold for God knows how long. I scanned the wing for any sign of other people, it seemed devoid of life. I lay back down and went to sleep.

"She's just fine. She woke up sometime last night and went back to sleep. I do need to wake her up, though, so I can change her bandages." Madam Samina told someone. I didn't feel like looking to see who. My head hurt about a billion times worse than last night. I forced myself to open my eyes and sit up. It was a slow process.

"Honey, you need to wake up." I cringed as I head the voice; my mother had come to Hogwarts.

"I'm up! And Bloody Hell does my head hurt!" I said venomously. "Why are you here?" I spat at my mother.

"I wanted to make sure you were fine. Then I'm taking both of my girls home for Christmas."

"I think not." I said, "I want to stay here, and I'm not going anywhere with Lily!"

"I think it would be best if you left while I change her bandages. She's not going anywhere before Christmas, I need her under my care. You go ahead and take your other daughter home; I think it would cause less stress for Miss Potter." Madam Samina informed Mum coolly.

"Okay, I can do that, but let me just say goodbye to Riley first, it won't take long." Mum hugged me and then left saying, "Merry Christmas."

"There, that solves you're problem doesn't it? You don't have to stay in the hospital wing for very long but I do want you to stay at school. Now, let's have a look at that wound." Madam Samina gently pulled off my bandages. "Hmm, it's still bleeding. You'll have to stay in the hospital wing at least one more night. You don't have a very healthy pallor to you. You've been bleeding freely for about nine hours; I think you need some blood replenished. That wound just keeps on bleeding. Here this'll do the trick." She stuffed a spoon with a vile tasting liquid into my mouth. I had no choice but to swallow it.

"What does it look like?" I asked her. "Will I have a scar?"

"Oh, yes. You'll never be rid of that scar, looks just like a lightening bolt. Exactly like your father's. Now hold that on your forehead, that's the ticket, I need some more gauze." She bustled off to go grab some.

"Riley, you're awake!" Celeste ran into the hospital wing with Lauran close behind her.

"Yeah, though it hurts a lot less if I'm sleeping." I joked laughing, "Hey, where's Spencer?"

"His parents wanted him home at the last second. He left on the train first thing this morning." Lauran said. She looked ready to burst; like she really wanted to tell me something. "Guess who kissed Dean last night? Oh, that would be me!"

"Congrats," I stiffened up at this mention of kissing; I had never gotten my kiss from Spencer. "What about Colby, did he kiss you?" I was very unenthusiastic but they didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, and then Spencer carried you in all covered in blood. Everyone got quiet and the teachers didn't ask any questions before whisking you away to the hospital wing." Celeste seemed eager to discuss this fact.

"You know what's weird?" Lauran asked, "You didn't have any blood on you, but it was all over Spencer, it even got on Celeste and I later, but there wasn't any on you."

"That's odd." I had said no more than five words since I found out that Spencer was gone. I wanted to talk to him and make sure that last night wasn't really a figment of my imagination and I hadn't hit my head falling down the stairs or something stupid like that.

"So what's your scar look like? Is it just a straight cut or what?" Celeste filled in the silence quickly.

I pulled the cloth off only to find I had stopped bleeding. Madam Samina came back over.

"Wow, that's amazing. You've stopped bleeding. I still need to wrap your head though." She wound the gauze around my head. "I suppose you can go if you want to. Nobody's here because they all went home for break. Come back after dinner and again in the morning and we'll change those bandages for you."

I stood up and walked out of the hospital wing with Celeste and Lauran. I went straight to the dormitory and went to sleep. I slept until three that afternoon. Hey, when a person has to sleep, a person has to sleep.

"About time you got up. Come on, let's go fly our brooms. I'm bored." Celeste complained as I came down the Dormitory stairs. She and Lauran were sitting with Colby and Dean in the Common Room.

"I can't fly very well," Dean admitted, "Never been much good with a broom, no matter what use you have for it. I'm Muggle born and didn't fly before coming to Hogwarts, I still prefer to keep my feet on the ground."

"Why? Flying is so much fun. You're missing out." I told him curtly, "Lauran will help you, it'll be fun."

"Yeah, I can help. We won't let you fall off your broom and break something." Lauran sounded happy.

"And if you completely suck I promise not to mock you for the rest of your schooling career," I promised solemnly.

"You can't be as bad as Riley's sister," Celeste didn't notice the look on my face as she said this. "No one is as bad as Lily is at flying."

"Okay, let's give it a go. May as well try…" Dean didn't look very convinced at all.

We went down to the Quidditch Pitch and flew until dinner. It turns out Dean was pretty bad, but not the worst I've ever seen. I really wished I could talk to Spencer, but whatever. Lauran and Celeste were arguing over something stupid and I was stuck eating by myself at dinner because I refused to take sides. They had made up by the end of dinner though; they couldn't stay mad at each other for very long.

The evening was uneventful except for the lovely experience of changing the dressings around my head. The stench was awful. I had never smelt anything that nasty before. Madam Samina said it was normal for odd cuts from strange creatures to smell bad. I asked her if it was possibly poisonous. She just laughed and didn't answer; which made me highly suspicious since my parents did that when bad things happened, like when Dad couldn't make Graduation. I went to bed earlier than I would have if Spencer had been there and just lay there. Did I mention I really needed to talk to him?

Chapter 24: Christmas

"Riley, wake up. Oy! presents!" Celeste jumped on my bed and I woke up about three feet in the air.

"Where are the presents? I can't see any." I got out of bed and peered down to the end of my bed. "Oh look, I've got one, two, three, four, woo-hoo four presents. I seem to be overflowing with presents. I'm going back to bed."

"No, open them. I think that one's from Mum, that one must be from your mum, and the other two are from Celeste and me." Lauran said, pointing. "You should really get a violin to play you a mournful tune. Maybe you could enchant it to play endlessly."

"Ha ha ha, I'm really laughing now. Fine, it's too light to go back to sleep anyways." I sat at the end of my bed and reached for the top package.

It was from Mum. She had sent me a chocolate egg. Whoopee, Mum really loved me, to send me one whole chocolate egg that cost, like, 5 Knuts. The next package looked a little more promising. It was from Alicia Weasley, Celeste and Lauran's mum. She had knitted me a sweater with a big letter 'R' on the front. It was colored red and white. It also held a huge box of cookies. Celeste had gotten me 'A Guide to Proper Broomstick Etiquette' by Louise Fluttery. Lauran got me some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, some broomstick accessories like a compass for long flights and a book of simple charms for attaching things to a broom. That was the extent of my Christmas presents.

"Thanks you two. What a great Christmas I'm having. Mum even thought to put in a napkin for my chocolate egg." My voice dripping with sarcasm I bit my egg in half. I just loved this Christmas, and New Year's would be even worse.

"Jeez Riley, cheer up or it's going to rain in here. You usually love Christmas." Celeste had barely even made a dent in her pile of presents. I really felt loved at the moment. "Wait, where are you going? Don't you still have presents?"

"No, I only got four. An egg from Mum, a sweater and cookies from my true mum, Beans and stuff from Lauran and that book from you. I'm done opening presents." I went over to the window and sat on the seat watching Celeste and Lauran open their presents.

"Wow, you must feel loved. Wait, you didn't mention a present from Spencer. Did you guys have a fight or something?" Lauran asked suspiciously.

"Maybe we did." I answered, "I don't really remember exactly what went on seeing as how my head was sliced open two seconds later. What the bloody Hell is that?"

An oddly shaped thing was flying towards the window. I backed up and opened the window. The thing flew in. It turned out to be two owls carrying what appeared to be a large package between them. I noticed that one was Zandra; the other owl was Spencer's owl, Dionysius. Don't ask where that name came from; it's a very long story. The owls landed on the bed and I hurried to untie the package from them. Zandra perched on my shoulder and Dionysius flew to the top of the window and perched there. I opened the bulky package and out fell a couple smaller, badly wrapped packages.

"This one's for you, Celeste. Here Lauran, this is yours. So this must be mine." I handed the packages to their proper owners and went back over to the window seat to open my package. Dionysius landed on the seat next to me hooting softly.

I ripped open the package and a note fell out. I picked it up off the floor and read:

Riley,

Sorry I couldn't stay but Mum wanted me home. I really would rather be at school. I hope you're fine. You'd better like your present seeing as how I picked it out especially for you.

Spencer

I looked to see what it was. It turned out to be two books. One was filled with various spells that you didn't learn until your 4th, 5th, or even 6th & 7th year at Hogwarts. The other was a journal. That's right; Spencer got me a JOURNAL, FOR CHRISTMAS! I opened it up and flipped through it, and a note fell out of the pages.

Riley,

This isn't just any journal. It has magic properties that allow you to make an entry in minutes. It can tell most of your thoughts and can elaborate on your story. You should write down what's going on because I feel that it will be very important to the world someday to find out where you came from and who you were, even at 11 years old. Only you can read it, unless someone has your permission so no one can pry where they don't belong.

Spencer

Okay, even though it's completely retarded to get a DIARY from your HUGE CRUSH, it was kind of sweet, in a strange and retarded way. I mean he thinks it would be beneficial to the world to know who I am and where I come form. While creepy, maybe he's right. Lily's and my showdowns could be considered very humorous to someone someday. Maybe it's not such a bad idea.

"Ooh, what did he get you?" Celeste demanded. I threw the spell-book to her.

"Wait, that's not all he got you. What's that?" Lauran had seen the journal. I tossed it to her with the note sticking out of the top. She read it and thumbed through the pages.

"That's pretty Bloody wicked!" Celeste exclaimed as she looked at my journal. "I want one. All he got me was a huge tub of chocolate frogs."

"I'm not going to USE it!" I said, rolling my eyes. "Why should I keep a journal? Nobody wants to read about me and my boring life!"

"I've always thought you would amount to something. And you have an interesting life! Let's see: You speak snake, your sister is mental, your dad is a bad wizard catcher, you and your mom have huge issues, you keep ending up in the hospital wing, you were attacked by a giant bird, you have a scar identical to your father's, and you are completely falling for your best friend. I think people would want to read about you!"

"What are you talking about! I am not falling for my best friend! Where'd you get that idea?" I spluttered.

"It was kind of obvious. You and Spencer very definitely like each other." Lauran told me calmly.

"Yeah right," Was all I could say, "I'm not exactly pretty, or smart, or even, well I **_am_** kind of funny. Wouldn't you agree?"

Celeste snorted with laughter, "You're so modest, Riley." She said sarcastically. "And you're not ugly either! Now stupid, I'm not quite sure." She trailed off.

"Hmm, fine! Toss me that journal and maybe I'll write in it, but I'm not promising anything, you understand?" I watched as they both nodded their heads. "Good, now that we've got that established, let's go eat. I'm starved!"

We headed off to the Great Hall and ate **_THE_** most delicious breakfast I'd ever eaten. I was ecstatic, Celeste said it was obvious Spencer liked me, but then she was wrong sometimes.


	9. Chapters 25, 26 & 27

Chapter 25: Back to School

Boxing Day and New Year's had come and passed. Today was the last day of vacation and all the **_losers_** who went home were coming back. I'm just kidding, they aren't losers, well most of them anyway. Lily on the other hand…

"Colby, don't be stupid. Of **_COURSE_** England has a chance of getting to the World Cup this summer! If they beat Ireland and Switzerland then they'll play France at the cup. Wouldn't that be great if they do make it to the World Cup since we're hosting it?" Celeste was really into this conversation on the World Cup qualifying matches.

"Be realistic, Celeste! Ireland is too good to get beaten by England. England is substandard. They're not up to par at all. And if they **_did_** make it to the Cup they'd get flattened by France." Colby retaliated.

"Yeah, but France's Keeper is awful. Watkins can't keep anything out of the goal, Wood is much better." I joined in the conversation. "And Ireland lost their Seeker, Kingston, to an injury last week. They'll be flattened if they don't find a decent replacement. And let's face it, Switzerland stinks. England can easily beat them; how Switzerland ever beat Morocco I'll never know."

"So basically it's a matter of points?" Dean asked; he couldn't follow Quidditch very well, although he had improved at playing it over the break.

"You could say that," Lauran explained. "See it's a matter of which team beats which team, which comes down to points in the end. Of course having a decent Seeker wouldn't hurt anyone. The snitch is worth 150 points and ends the game so whichever team gets it usually wins."

"Okay, that makes since." Dean was trying to puzzle it all out.

"Ah, but if Bulgaria loses to Scotland and then Scotland turns around and beats Morocco, then Scotland is another competitor for a Cup spot." I said after some quick calculation. "Dean's right though, it's all a matter of points, because if Scotland were to win by only 10 points over Morocco, they wouldn't be a contender for the Cup."

"It's so confusing. I guess you're right though, England has a fair chance of getting into the World Cup." Colby said after thinking for a second.

"Wow, thinking about all the possibilities makes my head spin," Lauran said dazedly, "Hey looks like the train arrived."

"I'm sure Riley wants to go and meet Spencer," Celeste teased me relentlessly.

"Yeah, and you want to stay up here with just Colby, but that isn't going to happen." I retaliated verbally since I was too far away to hit her. Celeste and Colby both turned crimson.

"Hey, I want to see Spencer to," Dean jumped in, "I need to ask him something about his broom. It was acting weird, remember? Let's go meet him."

Sighing we all poured out of the Portrait Hole and down to the front doors. I sat on the stairs between Lauran and Dean. "Thanks," I whispered to Dean so nobody else could hear."

"No problem, I do need to talk to him anyways." Dean said honestly.

The front doors opened and hordes of kids poured into the school. I got off the stairs and out of the way of the crowd. Most of the kids pointed at me and whispered as they passed me. I thankfully didn't have to wear a bandage anymore. That'd have been humiliating. A few even asked to make sure I was all right or to see how my Christmas had been. I was very grateful that some people in the school seemed to care.

"Riley, that's a beautiful scar on your head." My heart skipped a beat as I recognized Spencer's voice.

"Yeah, nothing like having your head sliced open to make you realize just how much you hate your family." I grinned as I turned around and saw him for the first time in a few weeks.

He pulled me into a hug and held me for a minute. My heart stopped beating then started racing as I realized that he actually did care for me, and not just as a friend. Whoopee!

He finally let go and we separated just as a jolt of pain coursed through my head. My hand flew to my scar as I saw Lily's sneering face in the crowd. I instantly linked the feeling to her. She was mad, mad because I had _SPENCER_. Pain tore through my head again, why did I have to be linked to Lily? It was bad enough being related to her!

"You okay Riley?" Celeste asked as she plowed her way through the crowd, dragging Colby by his hand. And it's not like he looked like he minded or anything.

"That was weird." I said, "Weird, but yeah, I'm fine."

Spencer eyed me questionably. I chose not to answer. "Where are Lauran and Dean?" I asked Celeste.

She shrugged, "We lost them in the crowd. Hey, when's dinner, I'm starved."

"It's only 4o'clock." Lauran said as she came up to us towards the rear of the flood of people. "Didn't care where your sister was, just wanted to eat, huh?"

"Yeah, who needs a sister when you've got food?" Celeste replied grinning.

"Yeah, well if you ever find someone wanting a sister, bring them to me. They can take mine." I sat down hard on the stair as another wave of pain flowed through my head. Lily was in a vile mood.

"You okay?" Spencer had sat down beside me and he looked worried. "You don't look too great."

"Yeah, well Lily isn't happy, that's all I'm saying. Apparently I'm linked to her now. I hope she doesn't know." My head was in my hands and I talked extremely quietly so only Spencer could hear.

"Weird," Spencer slipped his arm around me and gave me a one armed hug.

"Oh, crap, don't touch me for a second." I thought of something. I wondered why it only hurt when I was TOUCHING Spencer. "That's curious, very curious. Lily's got a 'thing' for you, right? So, apparently, every time you touch me, I get a wave of pain through my scar. I bet that Lily's watching us, right now." I looked up and saw Lily's face for a second peering around the door to the dungeons. "Bingo, there she is."

"Um, okay then. I'm going to go upstairs to the Common Room since it's not time for dinner yet. Who's coming?" Spencer gave me a strange you've-got-issues-and-I'm-worried look.

"Oh, never mind! Fine, let's go." I followed behind everyone, keeping an eye out for Lily. She didn't appear to follow. Thank God, I couldn't stand that pain for too long.

"So, guess its back to school?" Spencer asked.

"It's more like back to Quidditch for me." Colby replied. Everyone laughed except for me. I was a little hurt that Spencer thought I was crazy, and that I didn't get the lovely welcome I had been hoping for from him. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Chapter 26: Downhill from Here

"Oh, look here comes the mail." Lauran instinctively put her hand over her glass; there had been too many instances of bird feathers getting into her juice.

"Hmm… I wonder what's going on in the world." I said as I caught the Daily Prophet. "Hey look, I got a letter. I wonder who it's from. Oh, CRAP! Look at this!" I pointed to the article on the front page of the paper.

Lost Auror?

The Department of Magical Law Enforcement reports a loss of contact with one Harry Potter three weeks ago. Head of the Department, Nymphronda Tonks says, "It's not irregular to lose touch with an Auror for days at a time. They are out in the front lines doing battle and can't always call to check in. We have never had to report a missing Auror before, the problem has never arisen." Contact was lost with Mr. Potter on March 9; it is now March 23, and people are starting to worry. Potter's mission cannot be divulged to the general public but it is rumored to be chasing after Moresby, one of the leading death-eaters, Moresby escaped capture during the mass arrests of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's final downfall.

I couldn't say anything, I just sat there pale-faced and not eating anything else. I did, however, open my letter. It was from the Department of Mysteries. I had been waiting for this letter for months! Unfortunately it only made me feel worse.

Miss. Potter,

Here is the Prophesy that you requested. We are very sorry to hear about your father.

Sincerely, M. J. Warner

Prophesier: Sybil Trelawney

Prophesy: There shall come a time when all seems won and those are lured into false safety. The time will follow when a Great Evil rises and a new Protector be born. A set of twins will come from the hero boy's clan, one pure of heart, the other far from. A reign of terror the Great Evil shall have. There is, however, one way to stop this from ever coming to be. Kill one twin, the Evil One, and let the Protector be. If you choose wrong, Evil shall triumph and a time of horror greater than ever dreamed shall fall. The only hope once the reign has begun is the one least expected. The Protector shall save the world. Judge them not for the Great Evil is the one least likely to seem harmful, while the Protector has the Dark Lord's wand. Do what you see fit, you have been warned, don't ever say you weren't.

Analysis: A time of danger will come when we will falsely believe ourselves safe. During this time a Great Evil shall rise and the Protector shall be born. The two shall be twins born into the Potter family. The Evil Twin will have a reign of terror worse than could ever be imagined. The only way to stop this from coming to be is to kill the Evil twin only. If you kill the Protector then the Evil cannot be defeated. The Evil and Protector are not who they'd appear to be.

"Well, that's helpful," I said sarcastically, "like I didn't already know that."

"Hey, Riley, we're sorry about your dad." I turned to see a whole crowd of people behind me. I felt like I was going to cry.

"Thanks, but I'm sure everything will be just fine." I tried to smile but didn't quite succeed. "Come on," I said turning to Celeste, "let's go to class. I don't feel like sitting here any longer."

"Wait, Riley, you forgot your letter." Celeste grabbed it and thrust it into my hand. I didn't notice that I already had my letter in my other hand. I grabbed the newspaper and strode confidently out of the Great Hall, and then I broke down. I started crying and crying and I just couldn't stop. Spencer knew it was best to leave me alone at this point and we walked to class. The flood of tears finally stopped. Everyone looked at me as they came in the classroom; nobody said anything. I wasn't sure if I was glad or mad about that.

"Hey, Riley what was that letter you got?" Lauran asked me later that day.

"Here, look for yourself." I thrust the letter into her hand.

"Um, you didn't open this." Lauran said.

"Yeah, I did."

"No, you didn't," Celeste had taken it from Lauran and was looking at it.

"But," I looked into my bag and saw another letter. I pulled it out and handed it to Lauran. "Let me see that one." I took it from Celeste and looked at it curiously. I pulled it open and read the letter. My heart stopped beating, it was from my dad.

Riley,

I need you to do something for me. Give this message to Hermione for me. And send this note to your mum. Also please watch your back, I'm not sure how, but you and Lily are connected in all of this. The message for Hermione is this: Moresby is after someone and something at Hogwarts. Proceed with caution.

Dad

"Okay, that's weird." I stuffed the note back into the envelope and ran up the Owlry stairs. Scribbling a hasty note to Mum, I sent my first letter with a school owned owl. Then I stuck a hurried note in with the one from Dad and sent it to Hermione using Zandra. "How do you get a letter from a missing person?" I asked Spencer quietly.

"Um, I don't know," He continued eating like there was no tomorrow. "I'm tired and I'm going to bed." He walked off quickly and went up to the dormitory.

"Now that was weird," Celeste said.

"Yeah, what's up with him?" Lauran asked.

"I'm not sure but he hasn't looked me in the eye all day. Either he knows something or he's going to break up with me." I added quietly. "Please, God, let him know something! Please, I can't stand him breaking up with me."

Chapter 27: Quidditch in a Heartbreak

"I hope my dad is still okay," I was slightly nervous and wasn't eating very much. Winning the Quidditch Cup was contingent on Gryffindor winning today's match. It was all up to me. I was also getting worried about my father; there were rumors that he had been spotted with none other than Moresby himself.

"He's fine, now eat something or you'll pass out on your broomstick." Celeste shoved some bacon at me.

"No thanks. I'm not hungry, is anyone else nervous?" I looked around the table at my fellow Quidditch members. It was still early and we were the only ones up. A chorus of 'yeahs' came from my teammates. Colby stood up.

"There's no use staying here, I'm going down to the Quidditch pitch, anyone want to come?" Colby left without waiting for an answer. I got up to follow him. Spencer followed me.

"Hey, Riley, we need to talk." Spencer intercepted me before I could catch up with Colby. He pulled me out of sight beside the stairs out of the school.

"Okay, but I really need to get down to the Pitch so make it fast." I looked up at the clear blue sky longing to be flying up there.

"Look, Riley, I care about you but you just aren't like you used to be. What happened to the trouble-maker girl I used to know? I just think you're too worked up about your dad. He beat You-Know-Who. Honestly, I think he can take care of himself. You aren't paying any attention to me, besides I found someone else. So, we're through. Now let's just be friends." Spencer finally paused for a breath.

"FINE, but I'm not going to be FRIENDS with a back stabbing no good dirty rotten…..ARGHHH!" I turned and stalked off to the Quidditch Pitch; I was too angry to cry. Who was this 'someone else'? I figured that I'd teach that no good 'someone else' a down and dirty lesson. The 'old' Riley hadn't gone anywhere; nothing had provoked her to rear her angry head for a while!

"Don't talk to me!" I shouted at Colby as I pulled my robes over my head and stuck my hand out for my broom. It flew out of the cabinet and into my hand. "I don't want to talk to anyone. And I suggest that you keep that male chauvinist pig, Spencer Wood, away from me or I WON'T be responsible for my actions!"

"Um, right then. I'll just be getting my broom and looking to see if the others are coming." Colby sounded taken-aback by my outburst. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm not going to cry a single tear over that," here I called Spencer Wood some very ugly words, "Oh, sorry, yes I'm okay. I can't wait to play Quidditch, though it's a good thing I'm not a Beater because Wood's head is abnormally swollen and would make a VERY easy target!"

"Um… right, I'll just look out for them then. Oh, Spencer, don't go in there, Riley's likely to kill you." Colby closed the door behind him.

Hearing the door open I turned hoping to see anyone but Wood, who was the one who walked through that door. "Riley, you have every right to be angry but…" Spencer never got to finish.

"COLBY, you left the door open!" I screamed!

Poking his head inside he replied, "No, I didn't."

"Oh, but you must have because I think I hear the wind blowing!" I grinned very nastily at Wood before going out to pace with Colby.

Before I closed the door I heard wood mutter, "That went better than I expected."

"Riley, nice catch!"

"I've never seen anyone catch the Snitch so quickly before!"

"That has GOT to be a record!"

I held the Quidditch Cup surrounded by roaring Gryffindors. I spotted Wood with a few first year girls, but mostly older girls all flirting with him and fluttering their eyelashes. As soon as I figured out which one was the sneak, I'd give her a face rearrangement; She wouldn't be as pretty with a broken nose and missing teeth.

"Riley, are you okay? I've never seen you this angry! Where's Spencer? What's wrong?" Lauran probed me for answers.

"I suggest that you NEVER mention that Wood boy's name again. EITHER OF YOU! Looks like I finally learned to channel my anger. Nothing exploded today." I threw the Cup to Colby and left the Common Room. I had no idea where I would go, so I just followed my feet. Celeste and Lauran trailed after me.

I came to the second floor girl's bathroom, Moaning Myrtle's. I suddenly knew where to go, The Chamber of Secrets.

"Riley what are you doing?" Celeste asked me as I searched the sinks straight across from Moaning Myrtle's stall. I didn't answer her; instead I gave a small exclamation of happiness and uttered a long, low hiss.

"Open up," I commanded in Parseltongue. Turning to the twins as the opening took shape I said, "Anyone up for some fun and excitement?"

Without waiting for an answer I jumped into the dark shaft that had opened up. I was angry and when I was angry I retaliated in some trouble making way. This was a prime example.

"Riley, let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps!" Lauran landed next to me on the muddy floor.

"Shut your mouth for a second!" I hissed urgently at her. "Keep Celeste quiet."

I peered closer at the floor. There had been visitors in this Chamber recently. That could only mean one person had been down here, my dad; but who did he have with him?

"C'mon, follow me and keep your mouths shut. Someone's down here, or they've been down here." I didn't wait for the other two to respond before I moved on. I knew something was wrong. I led them through the Chamber only pausing to open the snake doors. I opened the last one and saw what I had been dreading to find, my father… and Moresby.

"Ah, finally I get to meet the lovely Riley Potter. It's such a pleasure." A raspy voice came from beside my father.

"Oh, the pleasure's all mine Moresby. And, if you don't mind, I'd rather take my father and get out of here than have to continue this conversation. You see, I'm not in a very forgiving mood." I replied coldly.

"Ah, nice try, but it won't be so easy. You are going to have to fight your way out." Moresby laughed cruelly. "Won't that be fun?"

"A blast, I'm sure. Let's get this started then, shall we? Oh, kindly set my father loose, you appear to be so confident in yourself two of us shouldn't be too hard for you to take."

"Of course, here's your precious father." My dad came stumbling over towards me and Moresby tossed Dad his wand.

"Riley, don't you mean four, not two?" Celeste looked ready for a fight. But I wouldn't let her; with a wave of my hand the door flung shut, locking us in and them out.

"Bring it on Moresby." I taunted.


	10. Chapters 28, 29 & 30

Chapter 28: Beginning of the End

I flung a well aimed curse at Moresby. He reflected it and it bounced harmlessly off the wall. Darn, he was pretty good. I waited until my dad had shot a curse at him and directly afterwards shot my own at him, a full body-binding cruse. He stiffened up and fell over line a board, this was WAY too easy.

"Hmm, you should have hit him with the disarming jinx first, Riley," My dad commented.

"Yeah, I didn't think of that." I replied as Moresby clambered to his feet.

"Nice try, Potter. Too bad it wasn't good enough. Poor baby may want to think a _LITTLE_ faster to beat me." Moresby was up on his feet and casting spells left and right.

I retaliated with expellarimus. He managed to catch his wand before it flew from his hands. I muttered imprecations to my self. I know, not very well thought out in front of my dad; but he was over there muttering swear words too.

"MORESBY, stop attacking my father; go for Riley." A familiar voice echoed throughout the Chamber, LILY'S!

"Lily, get your big fat butt down here!" I called to the huge, nearly empty Chamber of Secrets. My dad winced at this remark about my sister. "Well she deserved it," I commented.

"Why, my lovely sister? Do you think I'm stupid? I know that you're mad about your _boyfriend _but he's moved on to the more beautiful and better **_ME_**!"

"Ah. Aha. I thought I smelled you sour stench in everything Lily. Hmm, you've sunk to an all time low. I never thought that you'd sink so low as to not face me yourself. Oh, well, yet Moresby do your dirty work, don't bask in the glory of killing your sister after she lies dead at your feet." I was pleased to see that Lily took the bait.

"Moresby, leave Riley to me!" Lily cried and she emerged out of the shadows, "This is between me and my sister."

"So how did you get Spencer to fall for you?" I asked Lily, she was only too happy to oblige me by spilling her little scheme.

"It was quite simple really. I made a love potion and he stupidly took it. He's been 'in love' with me this whole time eager to do my bidding. You made it all so much easier falling for him and being so worried about Dad, those feelings of resentment that Spencer had for you had to come from somewhere. The potion can't make that kind of dislike appear out of no where. Those were all REAL feelings."

_So that's how she did it,_ I thought to my self, dodging the curse she had flung at me, _a love potion, huh? I have to admit that she had worked this one out better than I had expected._

Flinging several spells at Lily, I managed to avoid getting hit my self as I feinted to the left before shooting a stunning spell straight at her. It hit her straight on. Lily fell, disabled, to the ground.

_That was TOO quick and TOO easy_, I thought suspiciously_, Not that I'm upset about that or anything. It just seems fishy._

I turned to help my dad but he already had Moresby on the ground and tied up.

"Must you have stunned her?" My dad asked tiredly. "I would prefer not to have to carry her out of here. Besides, she would have come to her senses as soon as Moresby was knocked out. She HAD to have been under his influence."

"Yeah, whatever you say dad," I waved my wand and Lily sat up groaning.

"What happened?" Lily asked quietly, she was a great actress, could have made millions. Lily knew full well what had happened.

I didn't answer her; instead I turned and opened the door with a command. Celeste and Lauran instantly fell into the Chamber with a resounding THUNK.

"Ouch, okay note to self door opens inwards." Celeste muttered brushing off what mud would fall off of her robes.

"Yeah, I'm leaving," I was still in a bad mood and didn't feel much like talking to anyone.

"What happened?" Lauran asked, surveying the scene quietly.

"Absolutely nothing, Moresby and I had an absolutely spiffing play date is all. I never nearly killed my own sister and my dad certainly didn't attack an armed crazy man. And for the record my boyfriend didn't dump me under the influence of my twin sister's love potion. In fact it's all a figment of your imagination." I replied rather nastily, seeing as how I was covered in mud and happened to be bleeding from numerous cuts.

"Well, it's nice to see you still have your sense of humor." Lauran muttered sarcastically.

"I'm going up to bed. I played Quidditch, got dumped, and dueled people today. Let's just hope no ninja warriors or mad axe men show up on the way to the dormitory." And with that I stalked off out of the Chamber of Secrets. I had gotten to the entrance hall before I heard signs that anyone had been following me.

"Riley, stay where you are," Lily's voice rang out harsh and cold.

"Go away!"

"Turn and face me. If you move I'll curse you!"

"You just told me to turn around and now you're saying not to move. Make up your mind will you? I can't not move and turn around at the same time!"

"Turn around and then **FREEZE**. Smart aleck," she muttered.

I turned around VERY slowly so as to not 'frighten' her. Really this just meant I wanted to annoy her. "What do you want?" I demanded.

"I want YOU dead, but we both know that I can't kill you, you're too **_VALUABLE_** to me. Besides, they'd expel me for it and we certainly don't want that."

"No, why would anyone want _you_ expelled?" She didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm.

"Of course, everyone loves Lily. It's inevitable. Anyways I don't want to KILL you, just hurt you so bad you won't be able to return to Hogwarts next year. And if it looked like an accident I wouldn't have any trouble with expulsion."

"Do I get a say in this?" I asked softly, pretending to be scared.

"Absolutely big sis, but your vote doesn't matter. Are you scared? You're _SUCH_ a big baby."

"Oh, well it must run in the family then because you're an even bigger baby."

Lily had gotten tired of the trash talk flying back and forth; frankly I had been tired of it before we started. Lily flung a disarming spell at me and my wand flew to the ends of my finger tips but I managed to hold onto it. I just blocked everything rather than waste my energy.

"Lily, this is SOOO boring. Is this all you've got?"

Lily's answer was an unintelligible grunt which I took to mean 'no' since she started flinging spells left and right.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you're going to wear yourself out doing that little sister. You'd best calm down a little bit."

Lily looked stark raving mad. I decided to go on the offensive. Flinging a spell at Lily I broke my shield and advanced on her, driving her back into the Grand Staircase. She remembered at the last second that to step. Her gigantic black bird soared out of a side hall and hovered just above her shoulder. I continued driving her back up the stairs. She was approaching the landing.

_Back, back, back. Just a little more, _I thought, _C'mon just a little farther._

Just when I thought that she wouldn't trip since there was only one stair left, Lily fell to the ground in a heap. Her wand flew out of her hand and tumbled down the stairs behind me. She flinched as I stuck my wand in her face. I tweaked her nose with the tip of my wand. She shrieked.

"Ah. Aha. I seem to have beaten you. Take that as a lesson. I'm not going to kill you; now, get up and stop sniveling." I grabbed her rather forcefully by the hand and yanked her to her feet. "Where's dad?"

"Well you see…." Lily explained that she had stunned Dad, Celeste and Lauran and would need her wand to un-stun them.

"I think not. I'll carry your wand and I'll un-stun them. You get to walk in front of me. Isn't that fun?"

"You are **_SOOO_** kind, your worshipfulness." I picked up on the sarcasm but said nothing. Instead I stabbed her in the small of her back with my wand.

"Walk." I ordered. And Lily crept slowly down the passage. "Faster or I'll make you sprint." This got her walking at a brisk pace. "That's much better."

"What are they going to do with her?" It was later that night and Celeste, Lauran, and I were sitting in the Common Room talking.

"Well after Mum came the three of them went home. I think they're taking her to some psychoanalyst to test her and make sure that she is really fine and that it was all Moresby's control. One thing's for sure, I'm not going home anytime soon. Mum afraid that her precious baby will have a relapse or something if she sees me. I know it was all Lily and had nothing to do with Moresby but who's going to listen to me?"

"I don't know Riley. I'm not straight on all the facts so my opinion is just that, an opinion." Celeste replied.

"I heard that they've got Spencer in the Hospital Wing recovering. Want to go see him?" Lauran asked hopefully.

"Not so much. I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Good night." I wasn't even close to being tired but I went up to bed anyways. Tomorrow was going to be a LONG day.

**_A love potion can't make up the feelings of one person towards another except for the love between the maker and the drinker. These other feelings are only enhanced by the drinker by the potion._**

Sighing I slammed the book shut. Lily was right about the potion and I was just sore and mad. I threw the book onto my trunk and rolled over to go to sleep. When I finally did fall asleep I was haunted by dreams of the day's events.

Chapter 29: The Whispers

"Look there she is."

"I heard that she killed her sister and the teachers are too afraid of her to do anything about it."

"That's not what I heard. I heard that her boyfriend broke up with her and she put him in the Hospital Wing."

"That flying she did yesterday was unnatural."

Whispers greeted me the next morning in the Great Hall. I knew rumors would show their ugly faces today, I just didn't realize how STUPID some of them would be. I did my best to ignore them.

"So, are you going to go see Spencer today?" Lauran prompted as I sat down. "He was under a love potion. I bet he didn't want to break up with you."

"No," was all that I said in reply.

"C'mon, I'll go too."

"No."

"Why won't you go?"

"I'm not hungry. See you guys in class." I stood up and left. The whispers followed me wherever I went.

"What's wrong with her?" Lauran asked Celeste.

"Well, look in your potions book and you tell me." Celeste knew what was bothering me.

"Hey, this came for you at breakfast." Colby stuffed a letter into my hands. "So, is Wood all that's bothering you?"

"No, he's just what everyone thinks is bothering me. Actually it has absolutely nothing to do with him." I replied. Why was I being honest with Colby of all people?

"If you want to tell me…" Colby trailed off.

"I don't know why I should but I'm going to anyway. Do you remember at the start of year feast how the Sorting Hat was talking about some prophesy?"

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to forget."

"Well the Prophesy is real. Celeste and Lauran don't even know about it. But I'm okay with the Prophesy. What's bothering me is more what it said about people suffering. If I'm the 'Protector' then Lily has to be the 'Great Evil'. And we all know that Lily's kind of psychotic. She can do an awful lot of damage if she puts her mind to it."

"How do you know that the Prophesy is about you and Lily?" Colby asked skeptically.

"I know because of two things, this," I held up my wand, "and this." I showed him my lightening bolt shaped scar.

"A wand and a scar, yep that's solid evidence," he said this quite sarcastically.

"Look at the wand. Does it look familiar?" I asked him not waiting for an answer. "It was Lord Voldemort's. I own Voldemort's wand. It was the only wand out of the whole store that worked for me. 'The wand chooses the wizard.' Now what do you think?"

"I don't know what to think. But if Lily's going to make people suffer then why didn't you kill her?"

"Ah. Aha. That's what's bothering me. I had two perfectly good chances to do away with her and I refused to do it. I have the lives of too many people on my hands if Lily's going to be worse than Voldemort and yet… I couldn't kill her. It's not Lily who killed those people, it's my fault they're going to die. All because a stupid 11 year old couldn't kill her twin sister no matter how much she hates her. I'm worse than Lily."

"No," Colby said quietly, "the fact that you couldn't kill her shows just how different you are from Lily. You value life too much to take it from someone, even if they may grow up to be a horrendous monster. You are exactly the opposite of Lily in every way. Now open that letter. It looks important."

"Yeah it's from my dad. It probably says where the heck I'm supposed to go this summer." I scanned the letter. Then I went back and read it again. "Yep, I'm living with George and Alicia." I said quietly. "There's more but I'm not allowed to say anything about it. Looks like I'm going to be as good as an orphan though."

"What? Why?" Colby asked but one look at my face and he stopped bothering me with questions. The bell rang to signal that class was about to start. "You'd better get to class. It's the last one of the day."

"Yeah, I'm going." I walked through the door of Transfiguration and sat in the back corner of the room, where I always sit. It was a boring last lesson; we weren't having classes tomorrow since it was the last day of the term. The end of year feast was tomorrow. I liked the feasts but wasn't looking forward to this one very much. This may seem shocking, but usually when one is followed by whispers wherever one ventures, one is not in the mood for large feasts with large numbers of people.

Chapter 30: Homeward Bound

"That was a good feast last night." Celeste commented happily as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of Hogsmeade Station. "So you're going to live with us for now Riley?"

"Yeah that's right. Greg should enjoy having three sisters this year." I answered. We all laughed.

"He doesn't mind you at all Riley. You're around all the time anyways. How long are you staying with us?" Lauran asked.

"I'm not sure. My guess is that it'll be a fairly long time." I looked out the window.

"Hey, look who the wind blew in. Spencer you're not exactly the most popular person in this compartment right now." Celeste said none too kindly.

"I need to talk to Riley." He said shrugging.

"What do you want Wood?" I asked, my temper had been very short recently and I fought to keep it in line.

"Come out in the hall and I'll tell you." Wood urged.

"Fine, but if this is some dumb joke…" I trailed off and followed him off into the hall, not making eye contact at all.

"Riley, I'm sorry. Okay, that's all I wanted to say. I didn't mean to break up with you but I did and I know that you're mad and you have every right to be…" He trailed off.

"That's great, can I go back now?" I started to turn and leave.

"Will you go out with me again?" He blurted in a rush.

"Hmm let's see. You somehow were with my sister long enough to get duped and take a love potion. You broke up with me when I most needed you. Those feelings had to have come from somewhere. I may have family issues and maybe even some personal ones but I refuse to put myself through you again right now. I forgive you and maybe we can be friends but I'm NOT going to date you!" And with that I turned to see everyone's heads pop back into the compartment and grinned as I walked back into the compartment full of my friends.

"Nice job Riley." Celeste said.

"Come on did he really deserve that?" Colby asked. "That was kind of harsh."

"Yes!" cried everyone in the compartment.

"Okay, I know when I'm outnumbered." He said laughing.

"There's Mum!" Celeste yelled as we dragged all of our trunks off the train.

"And Dad and Greg are there too." Lauran added excitedly.

"Hey, do you see your folks Colby?" I asked.

"Yeah, they're right over there. Why?" He suddenly sounded suspicious.

"I kind of wanted to avoid too many happy family reunions." I said sheepishly. "And that's Oliver Wood talking to George Weasley."

"Oh, right. Come on, I'll introduce you to Mum then." I followed Colby through the crowd to a medium-height lady who looked very sweet. "Hi Mum."

Mrs. Seaworth pulled Colby into a huge hug. "And who is this charming friend of yours?" She asked politely.

"Ah, this is my star Quidditch player. She's the Seeker you know, Riley Potter." Colby's mother pulled me into a hug as well.

"It's very nice to meet you dear. Where are your parents?" She asked concerned.

"Um, they're actually not coming. My sister is sick and I'm staying with friends at the moment. Hey Colby, I bet your mom would like to meet your girlfriend."

"Ah, yes I would as a matter of fact. I've heard so much about her from him you see. Actually I know her parents, sweet couple really. Now be a good boy and go get her." Mrs. Seaworth pushed him off into the crowd. "Riley dear, I imagine that Colby would agree with me on this subject. You really MUST come and stay with us at some point this summer. It would be a lovely time."

"Oh, well maybe I will. Ah here comes Colby now." I watched grinning as Colby and Celeste pushed their way back through the crowd. "I have to go and leave my things with my friends. It was nice to meet you. See you around Colby." I gave him a quick hug before vanishing into the crowd with my trunk and Zandra's cage.

I was disappointed to see that the Woods were taking their jolly good time in vacating the Weasley family. I rolled my trunk over all the same and their brief talk halted for a second as I got my round of Weasley hugs.

"Why didn't you come right over dear? Avoiding family reunions indeed," Alicia muttered as she hugged me.

I sat down on my trunk and watched as they talked with the Woods for a little while longer. Greg plopped down next to me.

"So, that's who you were trying to avoid?" He asked pointing to Spencer Wood in the crowd.

"Yep, that's the one." I replied. "So, you excited about going to Hogwarts next year?"

"I guess. I don't know anyone yet though." He looked at the crowd. "Why are they all looking at you?"

"Oh, um, well they think I killed my sister, put Wood over there into the Hospital Wing and cheated at Quidditch." I replied honestly.

"And yet most of them aren't afraid of you." He noted as almost the entire school waved to me or said goodbye.

"Yeah, I guess they sort of got used to me." I waved to Julia and Olivia Johnson as they left with their parents.

"See you next year, detention buddy!" Olivia called grinning.

"Yeah, I've got no doubts you'll see me there." I yelled back grinning.

"A bit of a trouble maker are you?" Greg asked.

"Yeah, I'll tell you all about it later. Oh great, Wood beckons. Be right back Greg, I'm sure your dad will enjoy the story too. Your mum not so much since it involves Celeste and Lauran too." I walked over to Spencer and stood, one eyebrow raised in question until he said something.

"So, I'll write to you, okay?" He asked.

"That doesn't mean I'll write back." I answered smartly.

"Yeah, but I can hope you will. And I'd just like to point out that I deserved what you said on the train. Friends?"

"Friends."  
"I guess I'll see you next year then."

"It's unavoidable." I replied before walking away.

"Hey wait a second kid. You're Harry's daughter aren't you?" Oliver Wood called after me.

"Yes I am Mr. Wood." I answered.

"It's good to see you. Tell him I said hello."

"I'll be sure to tell him that in my next letter." I said honestly.

"Letter? Who are you staying with?" He looked puzzled.

"She's staying with us Oliver," George said. "I'm sure your son can tell you the whole story if you'd like."

"I'm sure he will, won't you Spencer?" Mr. Wood asked.

"Yeah," Spencer said shifting uncomfortably. "I'll tell you if you really want to know."

"Oh, I do want to know. You can tell me on the way home."

Lauran and Celeste came back from wherever they had been and my 'family' and I walked off out of King's Cross Station pulling three trunks full of spellbooks and laughing at the boat hijacking experience among other strange and funny Hogwarts experiences. And I realized that I had done the impossible, I had won them all. At least I had won everything that mattered.

**_END BOOK 1_**


	11. Flamers

**AN:**

**Okay, I'd like to start this Author's Note (That's all it is) by thanking my 'Flamers' for flaming. By doing this you give me the best ideas on what to work on. I'm not crazy or anything! 'Flamers' also give me the unusual chance to explain my strange reasoning behind the story, some of which I didn't even understand myself until you left me your flames!**

**First of all, I know she seems like a Mary-Sue, but it turns out that later she really not. In fact she's like the ultimate un-Mary-Sue because everything, and I mean _everything_ comes crashing down around her.

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**To 'Anna' I have no idea who you are but please, if you feel that my understanding of Brtish English is so bad, help me with it. Honestly, I don't mean to offend you or anyone else. My understanding of British speech comes solely from books and my best friend in 3rd grade who was British and moved to Washington.**

**If anyone is interested here is her review:**

Wow... um, wow.

First off, do you know what a Mary-Sue is? Because you've got one.

Dobby is out of character and poorly written. 'Defianceness' is my new favourite word, except that it isn't actually a word as it isn't in the dictionary Hagrid has an accent that you left out (although this is excusable, I hate writing funny voices too).

Is Riley supposed to sound British? It reads as though you're trying, and failing miserably. Brits don't all talk in cliches and strange words and 'blimey' and 'gee' and 'mate'.

I'm sorry, but you've just got a boring story. Hate me all you want, but it's true.

**My Explanation for you: Once again, she won't be a Mary Sue for long. Sorry if Dobby is out of character, having never met House Elf in person I find it hard to write them accurately. Riley is supposed to sorta sound British but sorta not, see her mum is American so she picked up things from both places. 'Gee' is definately not meant as an attempt at British accent. I don't know where that is but it's probably in there because I have an interesting mix of accents and backgrounds from moving around a lot and my family being from everywhere immaginable. As for Cliches, um once again not an attempt at being British, I say stupid cliche-y things all the time. Blimey, hmm I like that word, not really attempting to be British, possibly a joke from a long time ago that I don't remember.**

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**To 'I Love Harry Potter' Thanks for your opininon, it really helps me, but here's my side of the story about what you said. This was your review: **

sorry but i didnt really like it. harry would never play favorite to one of the children because thats what the dursleys did to him and dudley. harry hated being ignored or picked on because he wasnt normal. also harry would care if his daughter was in slytherin and he would never let her be friends with malfoys son. my third complaint is that people would pay attention to the prophesy made by trellawny most people including harry would think it was really important. harry wouldnt be such a asshole to his daughter and he wouldnt marry such a bitch.

**Here's my explanation: **

**Yes, Harry did play favorites in the begining, but he changes throughout the story. His opinion of his daughters is based mostly on what his bitchy wife told him because he's not around all the time due to his Auror duties. He did care that Lily was in Slytherin and deep down he knows that Lily is similar to Voldemort, but if your daughter was like that wouldn't you be in denial for a while. This takes place inthe grace period when he's trying to sort out his wife's biased comments from the truth. Nobody paid attention to the Prophesy, half, or more of the prophesies in the hall where they are stored never come true. Plus it didn't specify when these twins were to be born. Honestly, it could still be thousands of years before it actually comes true, if it ever does! The Prophesy is what you make it, if Harry had married Ginny (Like he really should) then none of this would have ever happened and nobody would even think of the Prophesy. As for the reason Harry married such an idiot, he wanted to escape from anyone he ever knew. People change too, they lie and they just plain change, sometimes we act one way around one person and another around someone else. I used Harry Potter to critisize these problems and now he is fixing them. Eventually he will sort everything out and divorce his wife, reconcile things with Riley and just plain fix all of his mistakes.

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**Thanks guys, I'll add more flames in here and explain to you why I did things the way I did. If you care to see my explanations then check back periodically. I don't mind flames, you have your opinions and I have mine. Actually I enjoy the flames, they improve my writing and help me to see my weaknesses as a writer and a diplomatic person. We can't always be politically correct, even though I do try!**

**Thanks to all my 'Flamers' and also to my non-'Flamers'!**

**Love From,**

**MotherCrumpet**

**P.S. Just so you know, there are two sequels, if you like it or ae just currious to see what direction I took it. Also, for you Katie and Oliver lovers, I'm writing a Katie and Oliver pairing story. It's really a lot different from the Riley Potter ones, so even you 'Flamers' might like it! I wanted to try a different style, I guess that's what you'd call it.**


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